Isn’t it beautiful?

OK, a little background.  Back in May of last year, I posted a picture of at least six different bicycles chained to light-posts and trees in front of Farm Burger on a Saturday afternoon.  The need for a bike rack in the area obvious and the pic led to a great conversation about city bike ordinances and how much we should rely on the city’s government to supply or require such things.

The owner of the neighboring Marlay property, Chadwick, quickly let us know that he was open to installing a bike rack on his property.  After being tipped off by commenters, I followed up with a second post about SOPO’s bike rack installation program, and DM readers continued to provide guidance on the most affordable and practical options for bike rack purchase and installation.

And now today, I’m happy to report that I just received this pic from Darren at The Marlay showing that the bike rack has been installed and is ready for use!  I’m not sure who paid for it, but we should certainly be appreciative to Chadwick and The Marlay folks for being receptive to installing a rack that should be a great resource for both The Marlay and its neighbors.

That’s community folks.  And that’s also a primitive sort of crowd-sourcing.  All it takes is a bunch of people with a diverse enough knowledge base and a willing property owner and you might just begin to accomplish some of the smaller things in your town that were once only possible as a result of the more traditional models of government.

Groovy.

Sorry.  Have fallen a bit behind on these!  Onto Goal #7 of the 2010 Decatur Strategic Plan!

Goal 7: Support, expand, and develop programs, services, events, and opportunities that respond to diverse interests, encourage community interaction, and promote a stronger sense of community

Task 7a: Continue to provide volunteer support services and maintain programs like the MLK Day service project, Season of giving, and special event support.

Task 7b: Explore the opportunity for an event that educates citizens about their community and connects them with community, institutional, and nonprofit organizations to promote community pride, volunteerism, neighborhood interaction, and communication with the public.

Task 7c: Expand the Decatur 101 program to reach as many citizens as possible.

Task 7d: Consider using public funds to create a neighborhood mini- grant program that encourages grass roots community improvement projects such as neighborhood kiosks, public art, tree plantings, neighborhood signs, and park improvements, and builds a stronger partnership between city government and neighborhood organizations.

Task 7e: Partner with City Schools of Decatur to establish a Decatur youth council to advise on Strategic Plan implementation and how the city government can best meet the needs of local youth.

On to Decatur Strategic Plan Goal 6!

Goal 6: Strengthen communication and involvement in and among neighborhoods, city government, volunteer boards and commissions, institutions, community organizations, local businesses, and Decatur as a whole

Task 6A: Provide communication in a variety of formats to reach a broad audience. Expand the use of social media and electronic tools such as Open City Hall to encourage citizen participation.

Task 6B: Reorganize city staff assignments to provide focused support to improve interaction between neighborhood and community groups, and focus on developing a community that supports aging in place.

Task 6C: Create a Decatur smart phone application to serve as a visitor and resident guide for local businesses, as well as a source of event and other information.

Today is a big day Decatur.  You’ve got a whole new look!

Don’t worry, no one replaced all the sidewalks with brick pavers and erected a bunch of “Olde Timey” streetlights…you’ve got a new website!

Gone is the cartoonish map welcome page and the poorly sorted wealth of information!  In addition to an updated look, the website is now better sorted and includes many new features like an online calendar, a host of RSS feeds, and a brand-new Decatur Tourism website: VisitDecaturGA.com.

From Linda Harris’ press release…

A highlight of the Tourism website is the “Go Local” section that features Six Word Story and Itinerary vides of various Decatur residents and business owners spotlighting where they take visitors and guests and describing Decatur in just six words.  The Tourism site also features Decatur’s newest blog – Visit Decatur GA.com with guest bloggers posting about events and happenings in and around the City of Decatur.

(Many of the “six word stories” created by DM readers are featured on the city’s new tourism website)

This is a long-time coming, so don’t waste another second.  Head on over and check it out!

A cursory glance at my site statistics for the day revealed a new referrer that I’d never seen before: gatech.edu.

I clicked over and low and behold, DM is on the syllabus for Georgia Tech’s CS 4472/6470: Design of Online Communities class.  And not only are we on the syllabus, but DM, and especially its comments, round out the intro class along with an interview with Robert Putnam of “Bowling Alone” fame, the popular Meetup.com and an article titled Virtual Communites are Communites: Web Surfers Don’t Ride Alone, which I’ll now have to read.

How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of that classroom this evening to hear a classroom of students dissect our little online community and what it may or may not exemplifiy.

Dare I say, this is just as cool as winning a Creative Loafing or Atlanta Magazine “Best of Atlanta” award!