Decatur Wins Big In Creative Loafing’s BOA Awards
Decatur Metro | September 23, 2009OK, enough with the grandstanding, I’ve got filtering to do! Here are all the Decatur winners. Looks like the city of Decatur beat out the Brick Store for the most overall awards with 4 (vs. 3).
Cityscape
Critics Picks
Best Neighborhood – Decatur (Choice quote: “Decatur, you marvelous son of a bitch, you win again.”)
Best Local Blog – Decatur Metro
Readers Picks
Best down-to-earth-place in Atlanta – Decatur
Best neighborhood to live in – Decatur
Best suburb – Decatur
Poets, Artists & Madmen
Critics Picks
Best Book Event – Decatur Book Festival
Best Literary Love for Atlanta – Outcasts United
Reader’s Picks
Best Emerging Visual Artist – John D. Weiss
Best Local Poet (tie) – Kodac Harrison
Best Place to Hear the Spoken Word – Java Monkey
Best Book Event – Decatur Book Festival
Best Acoustic Music Club – Eddie’s Attic
Best Pool Hall – Twain’s
Best Neighborhood Bar – Brick Store Pub
Oral Pleasures
Reader’s Picks
Best Patio Dining – Wahoo! Grill
Best Tacos – Taqueria de Sol
Best Fried Chicken – Watershed
Best Veggie Meal at a Non-Vegetarian Restaurant – Watershed
Best Brew Pub – Brick Store Pub
Best Beer Selection – Brick Store Pub
Consumer Culture
Reader’s Choice
Best Jewelry – Worthmore Jewelry
Best Nail Salon – Jazmin Spa
Best Kids Clothing – Wiggle
Congrats to all the winners! I hope I got ‘em all. Let me know what I may have missed!
Latest from Decaturish
A quote from best neighborhood, “And while the urban ’burb might catch flak from hardened intowners for its sometimes stroller mentality, it’s still the kind of place you’d secretly like to call home.”
I’m a bit slow this AM, but what exactly is a ‘sometimes stroller mentality.’
Decatur’s by far the most family-friendly of the intown living options, all things considered. The challenge is intowners who settle here to raise their kids and, from time to time, forget they used to be cool. I think that might be what the Loaf is getting at, speaking as one more hipster-dufus raising a kid in this town.
That’s what we were trying to sum up, Scott. Not meant as a dig against the city (heck, I live here).
The comment may have been alluding to what many of us refer to less tactfully as “the stroller mafia” phenomenon. (“Us” being people whose children are now older, or who have no children.) It’s a commonly used term around here. Speaking strictly for myself, I understand it to mean a certain obliviousness on the part of some young parents, leading them to assume that everybody within earshot (and line of sight) is okay with whatever their young children are doing; that it goes without saying that every event and every venue should be”kid friendly” and they can make it so by bringing their kids along; and at its most extreme, that children do not need to be taught common courtesy and respect for others–they’ll somehow magically become civilized when they’re older.
I’m not saying all young parents are this way. But those who are, have in this generation reached critical mass and consequently are able to bully the rest of us most of the time. I think that’s why the term includes the word “mafia.”
Please don’t anybody bother to chastise me as an anti-family child-hater. I’m neither. I like living in Decatur precisely because all ages and life-stages find good community here. But there are thorns among any roses, and this happens to be a pet peeve of mine. (And I’m not alone, believe me.)
I think most parents get tunnel vision around the particular stage(s) their child(ren) is(are) at. Stroller moms are obsessed with places that have coffee and a corner with toys . Elementary school parents are obsessed with school safety, parent participation, and teacher/student ratios. Middle school parents are obsessed with making sure that the siren they hear isn’t heading for Renfroe. And high school parents seem to care about block scheduling (whatever that is), SAT scores, AP class placement, and the abolishing the senior project.
It’s an evolutionary protective feature. I always find children in stages behind or above my children to be so much less interesting and important. So I’m not sure that the presence of a lot of annoying stroller moms is necessarily a sign that civilization is declining. What I think it IS, is a sign that enrollment in CSD will probably continue to climb. Some of us thought that the economy might result in fewer births, fewer moves of young families to expensive, small homes in Decatur, and hence fewer babies to go in those strollers of those stroller moms.
How about we just set up a video camera or webcam at Twain’s between 6 and 8 pm? I think that will pretty much explain what the term means. Yes, your kids may be cute as all holy hell, but when they slam into the back of my legs at 20 mph causing me to spill my beer and almost whack them with a cue stick, the cuteness is over. The “mentality” referred to will then be displayed by the “mother” who whisks her “child” away while shooting withering looks at the “mean man” who told her child to please watch where the hell he is going, and by the “father” who then, instead of talking to said mean man, asks the staff to kick the mean man out because he said a bad word in front of precious little Jacob or Noah or whatever the hell biblical name the hellion had.
Rant over. I do love Decatur (and the staff at Twain’s who told the hellion’s progenitors that it really was getting close to 9:00 anyway and that their future Einstein should probably home getting ready for bed)!
STG, you are indeed not alone. For my part, I grow weary of parents who think 1) their kids are the exceptions to each of the types of behavior you mentioned (and who consequently fail to recognize themselves in such conversations); 2) everyone else with kids believes the way they do about just “letting kids be kids”; and 3) anyone who doesn’t actually have a kid can’t possibly understand, or have any knowledge of, what good parenting entails. Well, I don’t have children, but I was one once, and I’ve basically helped raise many of my nieces & nephews from birth onward. I know what methods my mother employed to teach us to behave (and belive me, they were very effective), and when I see an ill-behaved very young child, it’s the parent I want to smack– not the child. (When they’re teens, however, all bets can be off– even the best parents can have kids that grow up to be willful & selfish, or fall in with the wrong crowd.) Anyway…don’t mean to threadjack, just commiserating.
OK, I’m a parent of two young children, and here’s my response to smalltowngal’s rant…RIGHT ON! I have no problem seeing my children for what they occasionally are in public; noisy little irritants to everyone around them.
And I agree with others who commented here. It’s incumbent upon the parents to take action when their children are causing problems. We have left in the middle of a meal at a restaurant to respect those who don’t want to hear our kids’ whining. We are borderline obsessive about teaching public volume control to our children (a nearly impossible task), and you will NEVER catch our kids running loose around a restaurant.
So for those of you who are understandably annoyed by other peoples’ kids, have hope; there are parents out there who believe in teaching their children to be respectful in public places.
You’all seem so much more confident that parents are in charge and in control than I often feel I am. My two children are so different. Parenting one of them can make me feel like I’m wildly successful as a mentor, parent, role model, disciplinarian etc. while parenting the other one is a truly humbling event, a constant learning adventure in parenting, a constant search for the techniques, phrases, rewards, punishments that will work. Not disagreeing with your standards, just wondering if you live on the same planet I do.
Snowflake, you’ve described my sons….the oldest, a quiet teacher-pleaser who would rather die than get in trouble, at school or anywhere, and my youngest, who announced to his kindergarten class that he didn’t care if he got in trouble at school because his mom loved him anyway. And yeah, what works with one absolutely doesn’t work with the other.
I swear, I’m on them like white on rice in restaurants or other not-necessarily-kid-centered places, but I’m certain they annoy other adults at times. I try my hardest not to give “breeders” a bad name, but sometimes it happens.
Scott and Thomas, thanks for your replies. You can count me among the aging hipster populace that made a conscious decision to procreate. It’s a decision I don’t regret. (Just like my tattoos.)
Smalltowngal, J.T. and Cubalibre, I also see your point(s). You won’t find me at Twain’s with the kids at 9 PM. I put my little hellions to bed at 7:30 so I can sit on the sofa, drink a beer and reminisce about all the times I lost a pool game because I scratched on the 8 ball. But I also try not to judge parents who go out later than that with their children. It just seems to me that too many non-parents and parents alike suffer from armchair parenting.
Kids have bad days. Parents have bad days. And when I witness a parent suffering through an tumultuous moment in public, I try to empathize and not whisper tsk-tsk beneath my breath. I’m not perfect and I’m not beholden to any illusions that my children are perfect. But I do the best I can. And I’m really kind of shocked by the generalizations that the majority of Decatur parents are aloof, don’t teach their children values and bully non-parents. I know not one parent in Decatur that fits that description. I’m not saying they don’t exist. But they certainly haven’t reached a ‘critical mass.’
Couple of last points:
• Unless children are expressly prohibited, i.e. Decatur Beer Festival, then you can expect a lot of parents and children there. (Teaching children that they are part of a community is an important lesson, doncha think?) If you don’t like hanging with kiddos then only go to events where children aren’t invited. That’s not bullying.
• J_T, if my kid had bumped you and caused you to scratch on the 8 then I would have a bought you a beer. But only a true hipster staple like PBR.
•Cubalibre, in all seriousness I would love to know what tactics your mother employed. Beyond physical punishment, I’m always open to discovering smarter ways to parent.
Hi, WC– just so it’s clear, my post wasn’t a generalization of all parents, or even Decatur parents in particular, so I’m hoping you didn’t feel beat up on by it. It’s simply an account of my experiences over MANY years (yeah, I’m pretty much an “aging hipster”, too) with the sometimes naive, sometimes deliberately obtuse who’ve chosen to procreate. Sometimes, as STG points out, those people reach what feels like a “critical mass”, particularly if they’re in a small area like Decatur (if you read STG’s original post, she also makes it pretty clear that she’s referring to a demographic that is likely a bit younger than you & I are). Also, I’m sure my post didn’t make this clear, but I actually am quite fond of children– they’re by turns funny, sweet, endearing, profound, frustrating, demanding, and, at times, mind-numbingly focused upon things that drive you crazy, but they’re seldom boring. What they are not is little adults, or people whose brains have the cognitive maturity to make the kinds of decisions that result in good behavior most of the time, so that’s where parents have to come in, and where, I find, most of them fail.
You wondered what tactics my mother used? Well, for one thing, she made it clear who was in charge (her), and was consistent in the use of warnings & consequences (i.e., she never threatened to mete out a punishment that didn’t get carried out, so we very soon learned that she meant what she said, period). It was clear: she loved us, but she was not our pal, and ergo, when she issued an edict, that was that. She also never pussy-footed around with giving us endless “choices” when it came to things that we ought to do, or needed to do (e.g., when our bedtime was, how much candy we could eat, or whether we would eat what she’d fixed for a meal– if we didn’t like it, fine, but she wasn’t a short order cook, and that was made clear). We were certainly never allowed to run around in restaurants– it would’ve been as dangerous for the waitstaff as it would’ve been for us. Too many things to really list here without well & truly threadjacking, but if there was one thing I have to put my finger on, I’d say it was the consistency, as well as ensuring that we understood that we were the children, she was the adult, and we did not have the right to question her rules if we wanted to live in her house. I can’t even conceive of what would’ve happened to me if one of my teachers had reported that I had used profanity in front of (much less TO) him/her, or even been disrespectful. Too many parents want to believe that their children can do no wrong, or that no other adult authority figure in their lives should be allowed to exert that authority– and look what that gets us: unruly kids who’re so disruptive that teachers spend more time trying to bring order than teaching. These kids grow up into self-centered pains-in-the-arse.
Bottom line: no one thinks they’re part of the problem, because we all want to believe the best of ourselves & our children. But a refusal to see things as they really are, or as others around you may see them, can lead to just the kinds of things we’re talking about here. Peace!
FWIW….I never claimed that objectionable parents are in the majority in Decatur, only that they have reached critical mass, and I stand by that. If it were not the case, then adult peer pressure would promptly shut down the (parent) behaviors that some of us find so dismaying (and face it, sometimes infuriating). In fact, most of the parents I know personally do a good job of setting boundaries and helping their children learn how to behave appropriately in public. I don’t object to the presence of children anywhere as long as they are behaving reasonably for the environment. YES–I can’t over-emphasize this–I DO believe it’s important to teach children they are part of a community, and that’s my point. Too many parents are not really teaching their children what that means. If they were, there wouldn’t be so many young children running loose in restaurants, kicking and bumping into people in lines at the coffee shop and yogurt store, and racing through the supermarket forcing innocent adult shoppers to dodge and weave with their grocery carts to avoid a collision. (And yes, we do anything to avoid it because inevitably we as the adults would get blamed.)
I don’t know what Cubalibre’s mom did, but mine somehow brainwashed us at an early age to be embarrassed if we caught ourselves–or heaven forbid if she or another adult caught us–misbehaving in public. Tantrums simply weren’t tolerated, nor were loud voices, running (unless at a playground or other specific play venue), or doing anything that could be irritating to the people around us (kicking seat backs, squabbling with each other). It didn’t stifle us, but it did teach us good manners.
Okay, I really didn’t mean to hijack this thread, which began as well-earned and richly deserved kudos for our own Decatur Metro. Let’s hear it again for the neighbor who makes our rants and discussions possible. Hip hip hooray!
Congrats, DM! You truly are the best local blog!
Wanted to add Wiggle to the list of winners – we’re voted Best Kid’s Clothing.
Thanks
Deepest apologies on that KL. Congrats! I’ve added you to the list!
I think this pretty much makes it official: DM rocks, Decatur rocks, and WE rock, too! Woo-hoo! I’m just all kinds of “I knew it” smug right now! I’ll calm down in a bit.
The Brickstore won best brewpub, without being a brewpub! Do all the brewpubs suck so bad that the award had to go to a non-brewpub? Surely not. Twains is awesome, and it’s a brewpub. Maybe people don’t know what a brewpub is– they just think of beer (brew) and pub and think of Brickstore?
Don’t get me wrong. Brickstore is an awesome pub in every sense of the word and deserve all the awards and accolades. But I’m calling BS on that one.
If I recall correctly, the reader writes in his/her choice for Best Brewpub. Most people do not understand the difference between a brewpub and a beer bar, so voting BSP twice can be an easy choice for most. To me, 5 Seasons is a great restaurant that also happens to be a brewpub. The former brewmasters of Dogwood & Sweetwater make the beers for the 3 locations, and are damn tasty. Locally, Twain’s is a good brewpub and I like their new menu.
Lastly, congrats DM!
You know you’re an absolute “best of” powerhouse when you start bleeding into categories you have no right to be in.
I’m hoping next year that the Brick Store can take home “best non-commercial radio station”
Awesome idea! Next year we can organize that write-in.
Oh, and congrats, DM.
They forgot three very important awards…
Best Community Pet: Hooty the Owl
Best Anus Burger: Decatur McDonalds
Best Zombie Fill Up: Gas & Gulp, Decatur
don’t forget best dancehall in town…Parisdecatur
Left off: Best furniture on a budget – Kudzu Antique Market
I think they really meant “gastropub,” rather than “brewpub,” although the food at BSP is kinda marginal. Thank God for Wells Bombardier.
Woops, think I posted in the wrong spot. KUDOS! What an honor, and well-deserved.