What’s become of me?  There once was a time when I’d have been all over something like this.

A tax on soda was one option considered to help pay for health care reform (the Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that a 3-cent tax on each 12-ounce sugared soda would raise $51.6 billion over a decade), and President Obama told Men’s Health magazine last fall that such a tax is “an idea that we should be exploring. There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.”

But with all the junk food and U.F.O.’s (unidentifiable food-like objects) out there, why soda? Why a tax? And, most important, would it work?

But before we all jump on the Captain Obvious-sponsored “Soda Isn’t All That Good for You” bandwagon, perhaps we should recognize this solution for what it really is: LAME.

The problem here isn’t the sugary drink itself, but the much wider prevailance of cheap, sweet calories.  Soda is NOT the new tobacco, as the New York Times wondered yesterday, because soda is just one of many forms that cheap calories take. Tobacco, on the other hand, is clearly tobacco, for better or worse.  Period.

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Cities are products of the state.  And don’t the cities know it.

Decisions by local municipalities may have the largest impact on our day-to-day lives, but in many cases the state still has the last say.  And sometimes cities have to hold their breath a very long time waiting for the state to say ANYthing.

Especially when that state entity is the Georgia Department of Transportation.

One such Decatur bond project, which has been sitting patiently in the queue since 2006, is the construction of the West Ponce de Leon/West Trinity bike lanes.  It’s original, optimistic construction date was October 2008-March 2009.  But as you may have noticed, when you venture out on Ponce or Trinity, there is no mini-lane for our two-wheeled friends; much to the chagrin of Decatur’s new bike advocacy group.

However, it looks like the city may finally be making some progress.  Amongst the items on the docket for tomorrow’s city commission meeting: a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with GDOT for the West Ponce/West Trinity bike lanes.  Under the agreement, the city would provide $65,465 to match the $261,860 in federal transportation enhancement funding to be put up by GDOT.

As for next steps:  according to a note from City Manager Peggy Merriss, “Once the agreement is executed by the Department of Transportation, the city will receive its authorization to advertise for bids and proceed with construction.”

The “hurry up and wait” period for this particular project may almost be over.