Jill writes in…

[My house] It was broken into today – sometime before lunch time. Thankfully all the person got was our TV – we don’t have much else. We recently moved from East Point because our house there was broken into four times.

We know that Oakhurst is a great place and we chose to move here because of the low crime rate and family friendly enviroment – and we suspect that this may be isolated to just us. Especially since the Decatur Police said that no one else was broken into today. We live on East Lake Drive at the corner of East Lake and Spring.

The Decatur Police were wonderful and took several fingerprint samples. The person also went thorough my son’s room (he’s 4 – not much he can find in there) and our liquor cabinet – too bad all they found was 7 year old wine from World Market. We are hoping the finger prints will lead to something. But, if you could, please let your readers to be aware of this so that they can be on the look out for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary around them.

We all know the story of Decatur’s CVS plaza and the city’s hard-won campaign to convince the developer to place the drugstore along the sidewalks of Ponce and Commerce.  Unarguably, a huge win for our city.  If the CVS building was tucked back into a corner of that massive lot, that Decatur intersection would still be an unpleasant place for pedestrians.

But, while the fight was won to move the building, it’s obvious that CVS wasn’t willing to compromise more than that.  And that story can be told by observing its street-facing windows.

You can almost hear the CVS corporate interior designers saying, “OK, they can move the building forward, but hell if we’re going to change the interior layout!”  (Apparently, I imagine that corporate designers swear a lot.) So while we get a nice row of windows fronting our sidewalks, they are covered with funky red panels, because…well, it’s a building living in the city that grew up in the ‘burbs.  Drivers care little about the placement of a building’s window.  Behind these particular windows, you won’t find window displays, but the back’s of the cashiers’ heads as they ring up an endless line of customers or the rear-side of an extra display that couldn’t find wall space.

This layout is so familiar that it’s no surprise to most these days, but it is still regrettable.  How much more enjoyable would that strip of concrete be today with a hugely ornate Halloween display instead of panels of red raindrops?  (Maybe these panels were Peter Gabriel’s inspiration?)

But of course this is Decatur.  For every shortsighted, corporate “this is the way we’ve always done it” decision, there’s local innovation and reinvention.  We take the lemons grown out of the 1960s and turn them into sweet, downtown PLACES, which hold near-universal appeal to bipeds.  So it wasn’t hard for me to locate some windows of found opportunity.  Case in point…

Read the rest of this entry »

Amy writes in and points out that the new Showtime original series “Homeland” features Decatur High School student Morgan Saylor as lead character, Nicholas Brody’s eldest child, Dana Brody.  According to the show’s website, Saylor’s character is “a sullen, abrasive teenager in the midst of a full-blown rebellion. The sudden return of her father leaves her unsure who her greater allegiance is to, her family or her clique of questionable friends.”

Saylor’s bio on the site provides a synopsis of her filmography to-date…

In the third grade, Saylor’s family moved within Georgia to an Atlanta neighborhood, full of even more theatre opportunities. There, she met more actors, and directors and an agent. She then made the transition from local and regional stage to television and film. Saylor’s credits include Disney’s “The Greening of Whitney Brown”, “Father of Invention:, “K-Ville”, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.”

Photo courtesy of Homeland website

• Will East Lake Road Become Two Lanes? [East Lake Neighborhood]
• Atlanta Lost More Jobs in August than any other U.S. City [ABC]
• City Cyclists Exposed to Twice as Much Soot as Peds [Scientific American]
• Decatur Root Beer Festival To Be Held Alongside Beer Fest [Little Shop]
• Flooded Northeast Farmers Get Creative to Recoup Cash [NYT]
• Georgia Primary to Be Held on Super Tuesday [AJC]
• Photo: West Ponce circa 1954 [GSU]
• Ugh. Braves Lose it All [AJC]

Photo courtesy of GA Highway Safety

South Columbia Drive @ Talley Street, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Joel)

Nothing like a post title where of three of the four words are acronyms!

Asst. Superintendent Thomas van Soelen writes in to let us know that the City Schools of Decatur has created a helpful “Frequently Asked Questions” page for the “Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax”, which goes before voters for another vote this November.

The page features a list of 13 “frequently asked questions”, including “What is the education SPLOST?”, “What is decision-making process for a SPLOST approval?”, “How much revenue can CSD expect to bring in from the SPLOST?”, and “Can the Superintendent or staff advocate for or against the SPLOST referendum?”.

Probably some of the most interesting pieces of info are in response to questions 8 & 9.  They read as follows…

8. What kinds of projects are slated for the SPLOST IV if approved?

Potential projects include the following: continued classroom renovation at RMS, renovation of the old gym at RMS into classrooms, acquisition of facilities leased by CSD such as ECLC and 5th Avenue, payment of debt related to the General Obligation Bond, the creation of a new Central Office Building, energy-efficiency changes for HVAC and other units in the schools and additional elementary classrooms.

9. Why would a central office building be included?

Central Office employees have been working out of the Westchester building. If enrollment continues to rise, the building may again be needed to house students. The administration has looked at the possibility of renting space within the city. The approximate annual rental cost of $250,000 must come from general funds, not SPLOST funds.

In addition to the FAQ, the page features links to a SPLOST presentation, photos of completed projects, a full project list and a SPLOST resolution.

Brad sent in this pic from Church Street this morning.  The city’s Katie Abel confirms that this no parking area is due to the filming of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, which we reported on over the weekend.  I also noticed similar signs along McDonough this morning.  She adds…

…mostly on Maple Street including some overnight stuff. My understanding is that they are filming scenes with Anna Kendrick, no Cameron Diaz or J.Lo.

If you can’t quite place Anna Kendrick, here’s a link for ya!