Month: October 2011

Finally! MARTA App and Website Detail Bus Locations in Real-Time

Ever since we discovered the CLIFF shuttles real-time bus locations website that shows you little icons scurrying along a map of the Decatur/Emory/Atlanta region, we wished that MARTA had something similar.  If we had a better idea of the location of buses, perhaps some of us might be more inclined to hop “the 2” into Atlanta every once in a while.

Well, sit your walking/cycling-toned butt down, because apparently it now exists!

With no fanfare or publicity, CL’s Thomas Wheatley just happened to stumble across info that led him to report that MARTA’s iPhone app and this website now gives you real-time MARTA bus-location info. Maps, schedules, arrival times, departure times.  It’s all there.  MARTA calls it “Precision Real-Time Bus Monitoring”.

Great move by MARTA making this happen.  Not so great that there isn’t more publicity surrounding it.  Either way, get on the bus!

Decorate Decatur Halloween Winners Announced

Decatur has announced the winners to the second annual Decorate Decatur Halloween contest.  You can view photos of carnivorous and spook-filled homes over on The Decatur Minute.

As for the grand prize winner, they were actually featured on DM a few days ago!  All hail our scarecrow overlords!  Check it!

Photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute

Morning Metro: HOT is Hot, All Hallows Even 1958, and Best Cities to Trick and/or Treat

  • HOT lane usage has tripled in first month to 10,000 riders a day [Gwinnett Daily Post]
  • Saba burglarized back on October 16th [Patch]
  • Sugarland plays Phillips Arena [AJC]
  • Don’t ask Doug Richards’ to prognosticate on Occupy Atlanta anymore [LAF]
  • Halloween in 1958 [Next Stop…Decatur]
  • The 19 building-types that caused the recession [Atlantic Cities]
  • Best cities for Trick-or-Treating [HuffPo]

John Kessler: “Decatur Has Emerged as Greater Atlanta’s Most Vibrant Dining Destination”

The front of the AJC’s Sunday Living section today features an extensive recent history of Decatur by John Kessler, told through the eyes of its restaurants and bars.  Here’s the intro…

The Acunto pizza oven lays claim as the Maserati of kitchen equipment — beautiful, sleek and powerful. Handcrafted in Italy, these racing-car-red ovens can transform a pile of burning wood into an inferno capable of cooking a pizza in 90 seconds.

Of the three restaurants in greater Atlanta that boast Acunto ovens, two sit 500 feet apart in Decatur. The new pizzeria Sapori di Napoli occupies former office space and promises to give the east side of metro Atlanta some of the cheesy magic of Antico Pizza Napoletana on the west side. No. 246, about two blocks from Sapori di Napoli, offers a hugely ambitious Italian menu in the space that old-time residents knew for decades as the Square Table, a down-home diner.

The Square Table was a stalwart of a very different Decatur.

Found Shihtzu Staying at Village Vets

Kelly writes in…

He’s currently lodged at the Village Vets but can’t stay there much longer. We found him Wed night at about 7:30pm. He appears to be a 12-15 pound Shihtzu male. He was on the sidewalk on Candler St. near the Recreation Center just sitting there with his leash attached and hanging next to him. He seems friendly, groomed, neutered, and obviously belongs to somebody. Unfortunately he had no tags and no microchip for ID. We asked several neighbors right in that area but nobody recognized him. If anybody knows this dog or has a lead on his owner please call Village Vets! Thank you.