Decatur is one of 11 finalists for this year’s Atlanta Magazine “Groundbreaker of the Year” Award.  According to the mag’s website, the program was launched in 2012 ” with the goal of honoring people and projects that make Atlanta a better place to live, emphasizing innovation and new ideas.”

The magazine’s theme for this year is “Building (and Rebuilding) a Better Place to Live.” “They explain, “We sought out smart work not only in development, but in preservation, parks, public art, and environmental stewardship. The 11 members of the 2015 class range from an urbanist project in the suburbs to a passionate advocate of public arts to a transformative reimagining of highway right-of-way.”

In its blurb, Decatur is recognized for its ongoing “environmental work” and it’s ARC Green Communities “platinum” status. The city’s current work with its “Better Together” diversity initiative, zoning changes to allow smaller housing options, the Lifelong Community Advisory Board and the MLK Service Program also all received a mention.

Decatur is up against a field of 10 worthy challengers, including a mixed use project in Alpharetta, Clark Howard’s involvement in Habitat for Humanity, MARTA CEO Keith Parker, Arts non-profit WonderRoot, PATH400 and others.

Take a look at all the candidates, and if you think Decatur is deserving of the award, you can vote for it HERE!

Photo courtesy of McVeigh Mangum

UPDATE: The city has decided to close Slide the City at 1p today.  See our latest post for more details.

The City of Decatur has stated on Facebook that Slide in the City is definitely on for this afternoon, despite DeKalb County’s recent water pressure struggles.

Last night, the County warned that water pressure would drop again around midnight, as they tried again to repair the break at Henderson Mill and Evans Road. But just minutes ago, the County reported via Twitter that the latest patch to the break did not hold and provided this pic…

The water main fix did not hold. While re-pressurizing water lines, the patch failed. Crews still on scene. pic.twitter.com/VLnMbU3pyz

— DeKalb County, GA (@ItsInDeKalb) July 25, 2015

Better late than never, right?  :-/  Neighborhood Clean Up Days started last weekend and continue thru June.  Details from The Decatur Minute…

The City of Decatur offers Neighborhood Clean-Up days once a year to allow residents to dispose of bulky items that aren’t normally placed in Pay-As-You-Throw bags.  Each street in the City is assigned to one Saturday each spring, generally between March-June.  Don’t forget that Decatur also accepts bulky items year round as a part of the regular sanitation pick up!

> Download the 2015 Neighborhood Clean Up Schedule Here

If you have any questions, please contact Sean Woodson at [email protected]  or 404-377-5571.  For more information visit decaturga.com/neighborhoodcleanup

INSTRUCTIONS: 

All items to be collected should be placed at the curb no later than 7:30a.m. This ensures that we do not have to rerun routes for late setouts. Collections run until 3:30p.m., or until finished, whichever is sooner.

ACCEPTABLE ITEMS 
• yard trimmings
• building materials (that are not from the work of private contractors)
• tires
• furniture
• appliances (not containing Freon)
• trash that would not normally be placed in pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) bags

WE WILL NOT COLLECT: 
• liquids
• dirt
• bricks
• blocks
• stone, rocks, or concrete
• motor vehicle batteries or parts

If you live in unincorporated DeKalb County or a DeKalb city where the County takes care of trash pickup for you, you have long been blessed with twice weekly trash pickup.  However, that may all soon change.

County CEO Lee May is proposing scaling back pick up to once a week.  The proposal comes after a three-month pilot program with 28,000 residents from the cities of Brookhaven, Chamblee, Dunwoody and Lithonia and unincorporated DeKalb, according to Crossroads News.

A note today from Commissioner Kathie Gannon announcing a meeting next Monday, February 9th at 6:30p at Scott-Candler Library to discuss the proposed changes, explains the reason for “One-day-a-week waste collection” this way – “Currently, garbage is collected twice a week for DeKalb County residents. On the first collection day, Sanitation picks up more than 66 percent of countywide garbage. This leaves a much lighter second-day collection.”

Additionally, the sanitary service rate sounds like it will remain flat.  The note states that “Residential customers will not experience a rate increase.” It includes these other proposed changes to the DeKalb trash pick up services…

• Standardized containers. The standardized use of 65-gallon green county-provided trash containers will ensure neighborhoods are cleaner and neater with the reduction of loose trash.
• Consolidated collection. With consolidated collection, all waste (solid waste, recycling, and yard trimmings) will be collected on the same day.
• Additional benefits to county residents. The program will include a renewed focus on recycling education for county residents and additional roadside litter collection by Sanitation employees.

The note states that the proposal is “set to be heard for a vote at an upcoming Board of Commissioners meeting.”

Photo courtesy of YouTube

As some of you were asking.  From the Decatur Minute…

Decatur’s Design, Environment & Construction Division shares the following information: 

City construction activities are scheduled from Oct. 13 to Oct. 24, 2014, weather permitting, on Ansley St. from Oakview Rd. to the west side of the Kings Highway intersection.

The City’s contractor, Stewart Brothers., will be performing all of the required work to mill, patch, resurface and replace street humps with speed tables on this street and will post signs on the street three days in advance of the start of construction. ALL VEHICLES MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE STREET DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS, 7AM to 6PM, WHEN WORK IS PERFORMED.  Vehicles parked on the street during the posted times are subject to towing. PLEASE WATCH FOR THE POSTING ON YOUR STREET.  PLEASE CONTACT THE DESIGN, ENVIRONMENT AND CONSTRUCTION DIVISION @ and ask for John F. Madajewski for further details, if necessary.

And actually, we reported Ansley would be paved mid-September.

Lately around Decatur it’s felt like we’re in the midst of a season of paving, as the whole of College Ave and selected neighborhood streets have gotten a fresh coat of asphalt.  Not to mention the random bouts of paving along Clairemont Avenue the last couple of months.

Well, GDOT is ready to accept next year’s list of residential paving around the city.  Here’s the list of streets that Asst. City Manager David Yunger is submitting to the city this evening…

• East Parkwood Road from West Ponce de Leon Avenue to West Parkwood Road intersection – .55 miles
• Fairview Street from Sycamore Drive. to Lockwood Terrace – .07 miles
• Lenore Street from Adams Street to South McDonough Street – .15 miles
• Springdale Street from Sycamore Drive to east end of street – .12 miles
• Vidal Boulevard from Lamont Drive to Lamom Drive – .35 miles
• West Hill Street from end of Oakhurst Streetscape project to South McDonough Street – .31 miles

Decatur takes great pride in its trash and recycling programs.  In the city’s recent Citizen Survey, residents gave both Garbage Collecting and Recycling a 91% positive rating.

That’s good because recently, recycling has gotten more expensive for residents.  The city is now paying almost $13 more a ton (from $76 to $89) for recycling because demand for recycled materials is way down.

As Asst. City Manager David Junger wrote at the Sept. 2nd commission meeting that “post-consumer recyclable commodity prices have dropped significantly due to depressed manufacturing and housing industries, unstable market conditions, and changes to international recyclable commodity markets, especially in Asia.”  Junger goes on to note that “the value of single-stream, post consumer recyclable materials have settled at a price which is producing marginal revenue.”

But as we’ve discussed over the years, recycling is never as easy or as net-positive for the planet as we often want/hope it to be.  For example: In past discussions we’ve learned that you shouldn’t leave your open recycling out in the rain, because wet paper, cardboard and chipboard can’t be recycled if it’s soaked.

Now throw this recent observation into the mix.

The Atlantic reports that single-stream recycling – throwing everything in one bin – “is, ultimately, more expensive than sorting things before they got to the dump, and MRFs can’t separate recyclables quite as well as a system that never mixes them together to begin with.”

This is apparently especially an issue with glass.  Quoting the Container Recycling Institute from the post…

Glass is the material most affected by the amount of breakage in each type of collection system. In single-stream programs, it is virtually impossible to prevent glass from breaking as it goes to the curb, is dumped in the truck, gets compacted, gets dumped on the tipping floor of the MRF, is repeatedly driven over by forklifts, and is dumped on conveyor belts to be processed by the MRF.

As such, if Decatur residents are really concerned about the environment, shouldn’t we look into going back in time a bit and perhaps separating out our glass (at a minimum) with the end goal of making sure more of the items thrown into recycling are actually recycled?  Of course the benefit of single-stream is that its ease of use encourages more people to participate.  But here in Decatur, we already have other mechanisms in place – read: pay-as-you-throw – to encourage continued recycling, so why not be as efficient as possible?

Photo courtesy of Gwyneth