UPDATE: Sara reports that N. Decatur between Scott Blvd and Superior remains closed as of 9:40a.

This sounds pretty ugly…

Traffic was clogged in the Decatur area Wednesday morning after a water main break shut down a major thoroughfare.

The main broke on Tuesday along North Decatur Road near Scott Boulevard.

North Decatur remained closed at daybreak Wednesday while crews worked to repair the pipe.

Anyone out there been near this intersection since “daybreak” and have a more recent report on the status of this intersection?

There’s some really interesting urban farming news tucked deep inside IMCA’s recent case study of Decatur entitled, “Healthy Decatur: A Holistic Approach to Sustainability“.  (h/t: 231 Sycamore)

First up, word of a possible community garden close to public housing…

[Active Living Director Dan] Magee has since contemplated starting a community garden near public housing run by the city’s Housing Authority. He is considering possible locations within the neighborhood or at a recreation center, and has made it a priority to identify champions who can build community support, involvement, and a sense of ownership. “That’s the community that needs it most,” he said, noting these residents’ poor access to healthy foods.

Secondly, a recent agreement with the United Methodist Children’s Home to convert two acres of their land into an urban farm…

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Avondale writer Patti Ghettzi bursts our bubble with an article recently published in Mother Nature Network, titled “My Year of Shopping Locally”.  In her email to DM she notes “I don’t name the businesses, because I wrote it for a national audience, but it’s pretty obvious whom I’m talking about.”

In the article, Ghettzi recaps the times in the past year when she vowed to “buy local” and ended up disappointed.  Reasons for disappointment ranged from having a bad experience with a shopkeeper to being unable to find items in stock, or just unwilling to pay more for something she could find for less online.

But before we local-devotees jump down Ghettzi’s throat with cries of cherry-picking and not looking at the bigger picture, I think we should first consider the value of such an article.  With its near cult-like status, it’s admittedly pretty easy for advocates to live comfortably inside the local movement vilifying all things big-box and tongue-kissing anything that’s displayed in the quaint corner store.

Of course, life, love and community are never that simple.

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The AJC gives DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis high marks for his first year on the job, noting a long list of housekeeping-ish accomplishments, such as consolidating public safety, naming permanent heads of departments, cutting costs, and firing the county’s telecommuting police chief.

And while Ellis certainly seems more the pragmatist and less the politician than his maddening predecessor, there must be some more valid critiques than the ones dug up by the AJC driving around DeKalb and polling people on the street. (Seriously, that’s what the article says.  I can’t help but imagine the exchange going something like this… “Hey!  Excuse me!  What do you think of your CEO Burrell Ellis?!  Forget it, the light is changing!  Thanks anyway!”)

Now that Ellis has proven himself a capable and less divisive leader than Vernon Jones, what County issues would you like to see addressed by his administration in 2010?

J Murdoch posted this question in this week’s Free-For-All Friday.  I thought we might be able to help ’em out.

Does anyone know of any good New Year’s Eve events in Decatur? We’re looking for something fun, not too DJ-ey, and maybe a little dressy.

“$250?!  I’ll extricate myself thank you very much.  Uh…could you give me a hand?”

From the AJC…

The county has adopted a $250 fee for anyone who must be cut from a crash by the county’s Fire Rescue Department. The service had been free.

The county projects making $750,000 on this new fee, which means it’s projecting around 3,000 nasty car wrecks next year.

Agnes Scott College announced today that it has launched a new way for students, faculty and staff to communicate with librarians; via text message.  In addition to the increasingly popular librarian IM chat, students on-the-go can now ask their school librarian simple questions via text.

“Cell phones are so ubiquitous that it made sense to offer this convenience to students, faculty and staff,” said Elizabeth Bagley, director of library services at Agnes Scott. “We’re expecting it to be popular around campus and potentially with our students abroad.”

Other potential uses?

Beyond answering short questions, the library foresees future uses for texting such as being able to alert students or faculty when an interlibrary loan book has arrived for their research, [Director of Library Services Elizabeth] Bagley said.

Take note children looking for a career path, “librarian” may be the coolest job out there in about 5-10 years.