Morning Metro: HOST Money Coming, Doughnut Love, and Drunk Texts From Famous Authors
Decatur Metro | June 19, 2012
- DeKalb’s got $560,000 in HOST to doll out to cities [AJC]
- Revolution Doughnuts featured in the [AJC]
- In Atlanta, lots of land, few “good places” to build [WSJ]
- Two sides of T-SPLOST [AJC]
- “A Struggling Generation” in Images [Atlantic]
- Drunk texts from famous authors [Paris Review]
Latest from Decaturish
Good article in “The Atlantic” about the struggling generation. I think about when I started college almost 30 years ago, and the comparison is very stark. In 1984, I was able to work 30 hours a week while going to school, and pay the majority of my college, living, car, insurance etc. expenses. That is an impossibility now.
I worry about the $1 TRILLION of debt today’s college students and graduates have racked up. I worry about the fact they were told, “go to college, you’ll get a great job,” and that hasn’t come true for many. I worry about high teenage unemployment, which is the best time to teach young people about adult responsibilities. I worry about the long-term emotional effects on those who tried so hard, and did so well, in high school and college, only to find a stunted job market. Finally, I worry about the inability of both the government and business sector to create and sustain long-term job opportunities.
We have such a talented, smart, creative and motivated younger generation, and all those assets are being lost while we struggle through this global malaise.
Big shout-out to the Peach Slider doughnuts that were available at Revolution Doughnuts last weekend. Those were fresh, ripe yummy peaches in those sliced doughnuts. I ate mine and then the one I bought for my son. Sorry, Son. Lattes are great too.
Do not be discouraged if you see a line at the counter, these days. There’s more help and the line moves quickly. And it’s worth a minute or two wait. I was running late and frustrated when I got in line last weekend. But after saying hi to three different families I know and a brief wait in line, and then biting into a juicy peach slider, I knew I’d made the right choice!
In the WSJ article, Johns Creek is a “nearer” suburb? What’s considered a far suburb? Dahlonega? For the record, my better half works in Johns Creek and we live here. But most people we know up there live and work in that general area. I can’t imagine living in Johns Creek and commuting downtown – that would be an insane commute.
“I can’t imagine living in Johns Creek and commuting downtown – that would be an insane commute.”
Lots of people do it–and even further. My wife works in a large office in Peachtree Center and many–if not most–of her coworkers live in N.Fulton, N.Gwinnett, Forsyth and Cherokee. It always amuses her when they complain about traffic or the price of gas.
Lots of people do it but lots of people give up as well. When I worked in Downtown Atlanta, we were always losing folks who thought that the could handle the long commute by using MARTA (once they got there) or vanpools or frequent teleworking but in the end found it too draining on them and their families. They’d talk less interesting and/or lower pay and/or or part-time positions or give up one of the partners’ careers to alleviate the strain.
It’s closer than Cartersville, Peachtree City, Buford, Covington, Loganville, etc…
I grew up in Atlanta and spent a week every summer at my grandparent’s farm in Forsyth County. I can remember when John’s Creek was just a sign. Literally. When 400 stopped at 285, I’m sure very few people lived in John’s Creek or Forsyth County and commuted to Atlanta. Once 400 was extended, boom. I remember driving up Peachtree Industrial/GA 141 when I returned to Atlanta in 1997 after being away for 7 years and being absolutely stunned at all the development. It is unbelievable how fast that area has grown. I also can’t imagine commuting to Atlanta from John’s Creek or Forsyth County but people do it. For them, I guess it’s worth the tradeoff. But I bet whatever money they are saving due to lower taxes is going into their gas tank and car maintenance.
“But I bet whatever money they are saving due to lower taxes is going into their gas tank and car maintenance.”
Though taxes are a factor, many of the people my wife works with choose the long commute because they can get a bigger house with a bigger lot in a good school district for much less money than closer in. I can understand the school district as motivation, not so much the big house and lot.
We have been conditioned to associate more living space (interior and exterior) with increased comfort, security and status. I think a lot of people don’t consciously think about it enough to ask themselves why they need that much room. And it’s been reinforced for so long by the building industry, the furniture and appliance manufacturers, the lawn adn garden sector, manufacturers and purveyors of home furnishings…. We are many generations into it now. Only since the trade-offs started becoming painful enough, have more people started questioning their own assumptions about what they “need” in terms of living space.
+1
We moved out of our large house into a much smaller condo on the square. Overall, we don’t miss all the extra space and the extra stuff we bought to fill all that space. More time for other pursuits!
I’ve always said that more space = more dust bunnies, more finger marks on walls, more floors to clean. Higher ceilings means more spiderwebs in places you can’t reach and more lightbulb changing that requires an extension ladder. (I’ve tried those long pole bulb changing devices and I break the bulb in the socket every time. They are made for old-fashioned incandescent bulbs not modern energy efficient bulbs.) And the physics of junk and old unused possessions is that they will expand to fill all available space. More space = more accumulation.
For the first 5-8 years of a brand-new, spacious new construction McMansion, it’s heaven but they don’t wear well. Mold, ivy, roof staining, chipping, fading, staining, leaning, sagging gives an older home character, not so much a contemporary home.
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The WSJ article about the glut of land in the exurbs reminded me to watch the “Designing Healthy Communities” PBA series I DVR’d . “Retrofitting Suburbia” is part one. Anyone else watching this series?
http://designinghealthycommunities.org/
Didn’t know about it. I’ll have to look it up.
Revolution better pick up the pace. My husband and I were 5th in line on Saturday morning and we waited 15-mins to get doughnuts. Seriously?! 15-mins?! They are doughnuts! Pick them up and put them on the tray. The girl at the register had to have deep converations with each person – which is great and does make people feel welcome, BUT there are 15 people WAITING behind each person checking out. The doughnuts were AWESOME, but it didn’t make up for the fact that we almost left TWICE because of the slowness of the staff. And I have to mention that there were 7-8 people working there at the time. Revolution we want you to succeed, please speed things up! It does attract attention to have a line out the door, but not because you are slower than molasses in winter.
Had almost the exact same experience on Friday morning, except the wait was 20 minutes. Fourth in line, with a 5-year-old, 20 minutes. Agree that the donuts are great but they’ve got to get that worked out. We’ve been to Sugar Moon twice in the past 2 weeks and both times had very little wait and got FANTASTIC cupcakes. I’m rooting for both places and hope Revolution works out the kinks.
Maybe just go to Dunkin Donuts and stop complaining. (that way you won’t be bothering the people around you and there’s more yumminess for me).
For Maria and staff: I like the friendly service. Keep up the awesome job!
Wow. That was harsh.
Thank you for being much more diplomatic in your response than what I first typed. People can certainly say inappropriate things in an anonymous setting and you all helped me not to follow down that path. Although, where’s J_T when I need him??
Wow. That was an unnecessarily snotty response to a decidedly un-snotty comment. “Fast” service and “friendly” service are not mutually exclusive. Further, it’s incredibly short-sighted for a business to assume its customers have all the time in the world to wait for what is essentially a cash and carry product.
Dang right. I want RD to succeed, but as a sound business, not a neighborhood cult. It took me two visits to get a doughnut — I have neither the time nor the patience to stand in line for half an hour at a doughnut shop — and it was good but not THAT good. Plus, there was the agony of watching the slow-motion goings on behind the counter, which seemed to reflect a lack of experience. Hope they get somebody in there who knows the ropes to help them get in the brisk-service groove. A little more Waffle House and a little less head shop.
“A little more Waffle House and a little less head shop”– I shouldn’t have decided to take a swallow of water at the same time I read this…
My guess is that most new places start out a little slower than has Rev D. so they get a chance to work out the kinks before it gets super busy. Rev D. already had a loyal following, Kickstarter investors, plus excellent pre-opening publicity, not to mention a dynamite concept and strategic timing and location. So they’ve started off full-tilt. It’s painful now but I think it’s a better sign for a new establishment to have long lines than to start out without much initial business.
Eventually, they’ve got to get the line thing worked out……………on the other hand, Taqueria del Sol never has but they seem to be still going strong.
I have only been to TDS once. thought the food was really good, but there has never again been a time when I was remotely willing to consider standing in that line. It’s not THAT good. Almost nothing is, IMO. So I guess there are two kinds of people in the world — those who can tolerate standing in line and those who can’t.
I find that the food at TDS comes out fast enough to make up for waiting in line to order, but then I tend to get there before the place fills up.
+3, same experience for my family of 3 waiting. I expect to wait a while but if you want to socialize do it after people have gotten their food & morning coffee
BTW, the “Drunk Texts From Famous Authors”– genius! Chortled aloud at the Wordsworth one…
Someone needs to do a “Drunk Texts From Decatur Metro Regulars”.
Heh! Gads– poor DM. I don’t know as he’d have the stomach for that! I bet the funniest ones would come from Token, since he’s usually all proper-like & whatnot up in here…
Hey! I’m not as think as you drunk I am!
Hee! I quite enjoyed the Cheever one as well. There are also a few good ones in the comments section of that post.