Lullwater Park, Emory University (photo submitted by Mary)

Rebecca points out a post on What Now Atlanta? reporting that the first location of MetroFresh’s new sandwich shop concept, Mitchwich, will probably be on Monroe Drive in Midtown Atlanta.

As was reported in the initial post about this potential shop, proximity to MetroFresh in Midtown was going to be a factor in determining the first location.  And while Decatur was in the running for the first “Mitchwich”, it looks like it wasn’t quite close enough to the mothership to win out.

Too bad, because the menu looks quite tasty!

But not all hope is lost.  If the first Mitchwich can prove its worth, the What Now? post says owner Mitchell Anderson has plans for many more locations, including one in Decatur.

One of my favorite regular features in Atlanta Magazine is Thomas Lake’s “Firsthand” column.  Lake “wanders the city with a notebook and pen” in hand, documenting the daily happenings of our sprawling metropolis.  He’s covered everything from a “midnight makeover” of Phillips Area from a hockey rink to a basketball court to burying Atlanta’s homeless in Palmetto.

This past month, Lake spent a few hours inside MARTA’s main control room, giving us an idea of what it takes to keep Atlanta’s transit functioning on a daily business.  Lake’s descriptions must be read for themselves, but here’s a taste…

The Rail Service Control Center runs nonstop, seven days a week, with nearly sixty workers in rotating shifts. They are the railroad equivalent of air traffic controllers. Before them, two Mosaic Display Boards dominate the room’s eastern wall. The boards resemble the black grids from the old board game Battleship, magnified a thousand times. They show diagrams of MARTA’s 48.1 miles of tracks, with 750 volts of direct-current electricity flowing through the third rail. The left board shows the trains moving. Each train glows red against the tracks.

Decatur is one of the few metro school districts that sends kids back to school today; a week earlier than most surrounding districts.

In addition to the early start, this year’s calendar differs from previous years in that there are now full weeks off in September and February, as well as the week of Thanksgiving.

So here’s an open thread for all you parents who had to get back in the school routine again today, a week earlier than everyone else.  Tell your “first day” stories, gripe about the heat, or lament about how old your kids are getting.  Let ‘er rip.