UPDATE: Another pic – this time from Gary – of the damage outside of Snap Fitness in Oakhurst.  Multiple cars under trees.  Decatur commissioner Patti Garrett says that word is that these trees will be cut up tomorrow.

Kathy sent in a couple pics of the damage from trees down at the Solarium in Oakhurst.  One more after the jump.

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UPDATE III: According to Andisheh, power is still out north of Ponce all the way up to Thinking Man.

UPDATE II: As of 7:30p they were beginning to cut up the tree.  New – and better! – pic above from Jason.

UPDATE: I’ve confirmed that the tree down across Ponce is indeed the one added to the Georgia Urban Forest Council’s Landmark and Historic Tree register last year.  I couldn’t get a good shot of it, but it is completely hollow on the inside.

It’s a massive tree – my new pic above doesn’t do it justice.  It’s going to be a while before Ponce reopens.

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Mark sends in a pic from the patio of Dancing Goats and reports that as storms made their way through Decatur 30 minutes ago, a tree feel across West Ponce de Leon Ave near the Post Office, just past the five-way intersection with Nelson Ferry Road.  He reports that a police car was passing the scene right as the tree was fell, so the response time by DPD and the Fire Dept was nearly instantaneous.

I haven’t seen it yet, but by his account, the down tree sounds like the one that Neil Norton got placed on the Georgia Urban Forest Council’s Landmark and Historic Tree Register late last year.  If so, it’s not only a big mess for the community, but a sad event.

Here’s the Google Streetview of that cluster of trees.

 

Stock Photo(shop) Lane, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Rick)

The CRCT scores are here!  The CRCT scores are here!

The AJC alerts the educated-minded metro residents that Georgia’s CRCT scores were released this morning with an article and an easily searchable, but contextual-less database.

The article notes that Decatur had some of the highest pass rates among Atlanta metro cities, along with Buford.  (A quick check of both Decatur and Buford fail-rates shows that Decatur had a clear advantage is most grades/subjects.)

Congrats to the school system, all the ‘rents, and especially the KIDS who continue to excel on these sorts of exams.

And since we like to hold ourselves to such a high standard, after the jump you’ll find Decatur and “top test performer” Fayette County’s fail-rates.

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The AJC reports that MARTA’s one-way fare will rise 50 cents to $2.50 starting October 1st.

Is raising fares on the tail-end of a recession a risky proposition?  Long-time transportation reporter Maria Saporta thinks so.  But In a response to that May post pointing to the negative effects of a fare increase (i.e. lower ridership), MARTA Chairman Jim Durrett revealed some of the thinking behind this second fare increase in two years…

All signals are that we will not receive as much support in the future from the federal government, we receive no operational support from the State of GA (and never have), and we should not base our decisions today on a future referendum.

We must seek to better diversify our revenue sources, and that includes charging user fees that are higher, but in line with our peer systems, finding other sources of income, controlling our costs, and enhancing the quality of the transit experience. We do this will full recognition of the condition of the economic and social environment in which we operate, and we hope to make a decision that best balances our desire to operate a sustainable transit system and the capacity of the public to pay for the service.

In other MARTA related news: The #2 bus service has returned to Decatur as of this Monday!