Is anyone else a fan of the photoblog Shorpy.com?  Its an incredible resource of photographs taken between 1850 and 1950.

A search of “Atlanta” turns up a collection of truly amazing pics during Sherman’s occupation in 1864, along with a few others from the turn of the century.

Annexation got your blood boiling?

Well that tax base initiative has nothing on the city of Atlanta’s efforts to create a local gaming authority that would set up a casino at Underground!

Gambling.  Is there anything it can’t do?

If you thought that Atlanta was only the crime capital for sexy co-eds (ie. the Barbie bandits) you’d be wrong.  Apparently these eye candy hoodlums are just one symptom of a much larger problem.

With an eye-popping 350 bank robberies in one year, Atlanta now out-ranks Philly and L.A. as the number one bank robbery capital in the country.  That’s 100 heists more than last year!   The FBI attributes this 40% growth in robberies to increased crime nationwide, coupled with an explosion of growth in our metro area.  (This last point is backed up by a census report last year, which showed that Atlanta had added more people, 669,699, than any other U.S. metro area from 2000-2006. That’s 15.8% growth) (CNNmoney)

So what might be attributed to this nationwide up tick in crime? Well, the mismanagement team that has been misallocating and blindly stretching our resources (troops, law enforcement) since 9/11: the Bush Administration.

From 11Alive:

“The FBI used to investigate every bank robbery case in the Atlanta area. After 9-11, the FBI re-organized and focused more on terrorism. Now they only investigate the most egregious bank robbery cases in which the robbers produce weapons. “

So if you don’t want the FBI on your ass, rob a bank without a weapon.  They don’t have time for the rest.

Oh, and lose the sunglasses, hat and gloves.

“Emmett says bank employees need to look out for people entering the bank who look out of the ordinary. “Key items to look for are gloves, hats, or sunglasses on a customer,”

A couple days after Fresh Loaf reported on an ARC report that “attributes the reduction of forested- and agricultural-land development to the recent housing-market slump and, to a lesser extent, the growing popularity of living intown and mixed-use developments.”, another report out of Haaaavaard University says the exact opposite.

Harvard smart dude, Mark Duda, says “The data indicates Atlanta’s strong suburban housing stock and lack of geographic barriers has hindered in-town reclamation and gentrification of neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosures. Rather than moving inside the city and buying foreclosed properties, local residents have a plethora of housing options along the city’s perimeter.”

To sum up…sprawl has slowed because of the housing market and people’s desire to live in-town, but people aren’t buying in-town because there’s plenty of housing options amongst the sprawl.

Confused? Me too.