Catherine writes on the Visit Decatur, GA blog…

Green Mosaic just opened on Tuesday right next to Oh! La-La in the Renaissance building at 224 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue (map). As you can see in the window photo above (apart from my reflection – whoops), the shop carries items that are organic, recycled, fair trade and eco-friendly.

Back in early February, Jim Galloway pointed out how the recent Republican representative shift from rural to suburb (think Perdue vs. Deal) played out during the 2011 legislative session with the passage of the Sunday alcohol sales bill.  “An interesting perspective”, I thought.  “I’ll have to see how this plays itself out in the coming months.”

Well, low and behold, give ‘em a couple months and suddenly, not only are ITP blue and OTP red purchasing Sunday liquor, but they’re standing side-by-side announcing that together, the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta had just convinced Porsche to consolidate its North American HQ at the old Ford Hapeville plant.

Maria Saporta notes the recent rarity of such an announcement…

For people in economic development circles, they couldn’t remember the last time that the governor of Georgia and the mayor of Atlanta had stood side-by-side to make such an announcement.

In fact, as best folks could remember, such a joint appearance may have dated back to when Atlanta was hosting the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

…But both Deal and Reed said that the two governments ability to collaborate was critical in Georgia and Atlanta attracting an increased commitment from Porsche.

“We wouldn’t have gotten this done without us working together,” Reed said after the press conference. “There was strong coordination between the state and the city. We both stepped up to the table repeatedly.”

A reminder that while there may still be real and theoretical differences between the two parties running the state and city, common interest sometimes trumps all.  And as of 2011, there seems to be a lot more common interest between the city and state than there used to be.

Unsung or not, it’s already producing results.

Sycamore Street, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Travis)

Smalltowngal is in the market for a new phone and would like to hear your opinions on both!

You may think I’m just hypothesizing for the sake of clicks and conversation, but this is straight out of the Decatur 2010 Strategic Plan Appendix B (page 33)…

A critical component in attracting new office uses is to ensure that existing office is successful and sustainable. Many of Decatur’s office buildings are old, and becoming obsolete. One way to deal with this is pruning, which basically means that having a whole lot of noncompetitive or low-quality space is actually worse than having less space, but of higher quality. Removing some of the older and less viable office buildings from the market could incent more competition. One way to handle this would be converting them to residential, which could shore up office rental rates, and possibly encourage new office construction in the City. The resulting residential units could provide a more affordable housing product, if the office buildings sell at low enough price points.  The “retro loft” architecture could also serve to broaden the residential market.

An interesting idea, but it seems predicated on the notion that residents – and not businesses – have a lower threshold for “old and obsolete” than businesses looking for a new space.  I suppose that could be true if the price point was attractive enough to the residential buyer.

I dunno.  Interesting food for thought.