Good transit news for Atlanta?  Is this some sort of bizarro world?

According to the AJC, Representative John Lewis and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed have stated that Atlanta will be awarded $47 million in grant money to build a streetcar line from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center.  The grant is $9 million less than the original $56 million that was originally requested by the city, but still seen as a major victory for Atlanta after the absolute failure to get any money for a Peachtree streetcar the last time grant money was doled out.

What we changed is, I followed the plan to Washington,” [Atlanta Mayor] Reed said. “I don’t want to say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the squeaky wheel gets grease.” Franklin congratulated him and others in an e-mail she titled “EUREKA!” — and noted that he “picked up the baton.”

Reed said the project would transform downtown. His office has estimated the project would create 5,200 jobs over 20 years and would not only help ease downtown traffic problems but also help the city compete for more tourism and convention business.

Map courtesy of the City of Atlanta via the AJC

Near the Fernbank Nat’l History Museum in Druid Hills (pic submitted by Jon)

Ah, there’s nothing quite as invigorating as a real-world story that results in an ultimate clash of ideals.

If you’ve yet to hear, the world’s largest food retailer is now openly promising to put a good deal more “local food” on its store shelves in the coming years, reopening the debate about the role or place of large corporations in the “local food” movement.

If you’ve seen Food, Inc. or found yourself on the receiving end of a “what’s evil about Whole Foods” rant , you are probably already pretty well-versed in this dilemma, which pits the money that large businesses can inject into local and/or organic farms against the often foggy larger purpose of the local food movement.

In the New York Times article, Linda Berlin at UVT sums up the major issue thusly…

“The local-food movement has been, certainly, about taste and quality of food, about providing good incomes for farmers, and also about other things that have to do with building smaller economies so we as a society aren’t dominated by the more industrial complexes,” she said. “This initiative doesn’t necessarily address that.”

If you listen to environmentalist Bill McKibben in his “Deep Economy“, the local food movement originally grew out of a deflated organic movement that felt a loss of purpose when larger corporations jumped onto and exploited that successful bandwagon.  Upon reflection by its 1970s founders, “organic” was too narrow – and reactionary honestly – a vision for what they were hoping to achieve.

“Local food” was seen as a way to tighten the qualities and mission of the movement, which, inadvertently or not, would make it less easily adaptable by larger corporations, who’s primary interest wasn’t in the local communities and relationships that were built around this most basic of human necessities, but the bottom-line.

However, like organic before it, local food’s current image in America has become vulnerable to being co-opted by major corporations, thanks to the natural fragmentation of the movement as it has gained in popularity across the continent.

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11Alive’s Doug Richards recently sat down with Rep. Hank Johnson and his Republican opponent Liz Carter about Johnson’s refusal up to this point to debate Carter prior to the November election.

I guess this sorta cements the fact that this particular election isn’t really about the debating the issues.  It’s about getting re-elected.

h/t: Political Insider

My recent ramblings about neighborhood connectivity, reminded Decatur resident Neil Norton of a 10-mile Decatur bike loop that he created a few years ago.

Click on the map above to open the full PDF.