Details!  More here.

SkaterAid, a skateboarding, music and art festival, returns for a seventh year to Decatur this coming fall. The festival is unique in that it caters directly to teens. The festival features ramps, jumps and contests for skateboarders as well as demonstrations by professional skaters. Music is provided by teen bands from area high schools. A skateboard deck art auction is held throughout the day, with a selection of eye-popping art created by professional and “outsider” artists from used skateboard decks. All proceeds generated by the event are donated to families who are battling pediatric brain cancer. The event will be held Sunday, Sept. 25 from 2-7 p.m. at East Decatur Station, a business complex just west of the Avondale MARTA station at 109 New Street, Decatur, Georgia.

SkaterAid was started in 2005 to celebrate the life of Ian Wochatz, a Decatur teen and avid skateboarder who succumbed to brain cancer on July 4, 2005 at age 15. The event has now grown to become a tradition in the community. Several area businesses have pitched in to support SkaterAid, such as the Brick Store Pub in Decatur square, which provides food and beverages for the event and displays the skateboard art for several weeks prior to SkaterAid. Stratosphere Skate Shop in Little Five Points provides ramps, decks and prizes for the event as well as publicity and oversight of the skating portion of the event.

Chick-Fil-A Parking Lot, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Dianne)

How did I miss this?  Wait.  How did YOU ALL miss this?!

Though far from being the two-wheelers’ playground it could be, Atlanta’s made some inroads when it comes to cycling. The most welcome addition to the metro region’s disparate bicycle network: Decatur’s new bike lanes along West Ponce de Leon Avenue and West Trinity Place. Wide and well-marked, the lanes clearly show where cyclists are supposed to pedal and motorists are supposed to yield. Designers even threw in a “bike box,” an area that allows cyclists to skip in front of cars at the red light and make a safe turn across traffic when the light changes to green. Decatur could’ve just tossed down a strip of paint on a busy road, but it went one step further and placed West Ponce on a “road diet” — actually reducing the number of automobile lanes in order to discourage drivers from roaring down the street. Sure, it’s one small $550,000 project. But it’s a great step for a city that’s building on its reputation as a paradise for progressives.

• Did You Know There are Actually 8 “Living Walls” in Decatur?  See them here! [Visit Decatur]
• James Joyce Pub to Become Sports Bar [Patch]
• John Kessler Checks Out HD1 on Opening Night [AJC]
• Graffiti, Marijuana and Stolen Computers [Emory Wheel blog]
• Midtown Shooting Suspect Released From Hospital [AJC]
• Donations Still Being Accepted for “Officer Pat” Silent Auction [Oakhurst MB]
• Georgia Shakespeare Meets Donations Goal to Stay Open [AJC]

Photo Courtesy of Visit Decatur GA

Feel free to use this post to ask questions and make comments about local issues not discussed here over the past week.

Comments close Monday.

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This week’s FFAF is brought to you by Cakes & Ale….

Cakes & Ale’s Sunday Supper in the Garden

Join us Sunday, October 2^nd for our second annual fundraiser: Sunday Supper in the Oakhurst Community Garden!  Billy and his team are grilling an al fresco dinner at the Oakhurst Community Garden with all proceeds going to benefit this wonderful community organization.  The October 2^nd dinner is from 5:30 pm until 8 pm and will be a beautiful event in the garden.

The Oakhurst Garden not only serves every student enrolled in the City Schools of Decatur through the Farm to School initiative, it leads after school activities through the Decatur Housing Authority, works with the Boys and Girls Club to teach youth about gardening, harvesting and cooking fresh vegetables, and teaches a myriad of classes for our community to learn and appreciate the natural world.  To purchase tickets and for more information about the garden go to www.oakhurstcommunitygarden.org