- Madison Avenue Soapbox Derby photos [Next Stop…Decatur]
- Dunwoody scheduling independent school system meetings [Heneghan]
- Recap of Decatur’s tax sale [Decatur Tax Blog]
- Avondale Estates mayor wants relationship with city school [AJC]
- Actual Factual Georgia: Not all Fox organists are known [AJC]
- Keith Parker puts us back on track [Atlanta Magazine]
A more general note: Decaturish has posted Q&As for all commission and school board candidates
Photo courtesy of Next Stop…Decatur
The Atlanta Magazine Keith Parker article is quite good. Gives good background on him and also summarizes the current state of MARTA and its plans for the future.
I wonder what those of you – like DEM – who criticized MARTA for a long time for its lack of fiscal discipline and common sense, think now that Parker has gone a long way in just a couple of years and “righted the ship”.
Dunwoody attempting to establish an independent school system could have a big impact on Decatur. Given the disfunction in Dekalb and the corruption in Atlanta, Decatur school district is seen as one of the few good school systems relatively close to the city center. If cities can start their own school systems, some of the incentive to move to Decatur might pass us by and the rise in housing prices might slow down.
It will be a heavy lift, as new schools systems are currently prohibited under Georgia’s constitution. I wouldn’t bet on it happening any time soon.
I hope there are some urban studies/statistical/real estate/sociology/poly sci grad students doing some in depth research into the history and growth of Decatur’s school system. They would have quite a thesis on gentrification, race, urban design preferences, social mobility, family structure and education policy. The changes in Decatur from 1980 to now are astounding…and compared to Atlanta, I think it’s even a greater change.
As someone who’s lived in Decatur or near Decatur, in Atlanta or near Atlanta for most of that period (with a few years out in the burbs and in central GA in the late 90s and early 00s), it’s altogether remarkable to me how much Decatur has changed. Downtown was so dreary and moribund in the 80s…But Atlanta has changed for the better too. Like most big cities, it’s much safer now than 30 years ago. And the Olympics did actually spur a lot of growth in the region.