Interesting article up on the AJC.  Here’s how it gets started…

Some neighborhoods in unincorporated DeKalb County near Emory University are unlikely to be annexed by the city of Atlanta, said county schools superintendent Michael Thurmond.

Fielding questions after giving a speech about the state of the school system Tuesday, Thurmond told a crowd at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston that he’d inquired about the annexation interest of the Druid Hills Civic Association.

David points to this op-ed on the Saporta Report by Atlanta-based landscape architect and urban designer Mike Morgan urging Atlanta to use Decatur as its model to “reorient growth to people”.  Here are a couple of interesting blurbs…

Fortunately, we do not have go very far to find a great example the results that can be achieved through a change of direction.

Decatur is the place, and it is right next door. Decatur made a radical choice to reorient itself to the realm of the pedestrian. They went on a road diet. They narrowed Ponce De Leon Ave. to two lanes. They replaced auto capacity with shady sidewalks, on-street parking, and bike lanes. They focused a vibrant living environment right on top of their fine downtown train station.

…Atlanta, to date, lacks a focused commitment to an urbane lifestyle. Look at the areas surrounding most of the intown train stations. While originally envisioned as community centers, policies were never put in place to make transit development desirable.

Stations are separated from users by blasted looking parking lots, high fences, atrocious urban design, dangerous roadways and sprawling commercial districts. The stations are not friendly to pedestrians or bicyclists. Is there any wonder that few people use them?

Related to these observations, does anyone with a deep MARTA history know why the North/South line runs close to, but not directly under Peachtree Street?

A new “Future Metropolis Index” report from Zipcar – the national car-sharing program – ranks Atlanta near the top in many interesting categories.  The index is designed to “recognize cities that demonstrate smart urban planning and policy-making.

Atlanta ranks 7th overall among the 36 cities analyzed, with these rankings in the five individual categories…

• #1 in Innovation, determined by the number of universities and Wi-Fi hot spots per residents (?)
• #17 in Sustainability, determined by miles of bike lanes and percentage of hybrid cars
• #5 in VIbrancy/Creativity, determined by park acres and arts-related jobs (Atlanta ranks #1 in arts jobs, according to the study)
• #4 in Efficiency, determined by % of commuters that use public transportation and the number of “unlinked” trips on public transportation
• #32 in Livability/Optimism, determined by homicide and burglary and unemployment rates

Who knew that Atlanta such an innovative, creative, efficient city with some trouble being sustainable and looking on the bright side of life??

The AJC believes Mayor Reed “held his own”. What do you all think?

“There’s a pall that’s over this town that is unacceptable…We need a second act.”  That’s Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed at last week’s Atlanta Press Club meeting, as reported by the AJC.

With Dallas’ recent hosting of the Super Bowl and Charlotte’s announcement that they had snagged the 2012 Democratic Convention, it’s easy to see how Atlanta could be sorta down on itself right now.

According to Reed, Atlanta’s 2000 decade boom spurred by the 1996 Olympics made the city complacent.  With unemployment above the national average and a nearly 9 percent drop in available jobs since 2007, it’s easy to see why Atlanta would be sort of sensitive to the recent, high-profile achievements of its unofficial rivals right now.

And it’s not just Democratic mayors that want Atlanta to produce a “second act”.

Rusty Paul, a former legislator who headed the state GOP, laughed when told of Reed’s comments about Atlanta’s potential decline. “It sounds like the speech I’ve been giving,” he said. “I’m glad the mayor is talking this way. If you’re going to fail, fail big.”

“Atlanta was the regional hub of the South because it did things first; Atlanta was on the cutting edge of transportation,” Paul said. “But, after the Olympics, we sat back and coasted. We expected growth to keep coming like it would never end. We got lulled into complacency.”

No longer on the cutting edge of transportation (Dallas has apparently installed 72 miles of light-rail since 1996) and no Olympic-scale event on the books, the city of transplants needs to start acting like it believes in itself again.  Because while its great fun to fight amongst ourselves over Atlanta’s direction, eventually we gotta move forward and DO something demonstrates faith in our future.

Otherwise, cities like Dallas and Charlotte will happily step in and fill the gap.

In this morning’s New York Times, professional opinionist hails Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed as a the new breed of “pay-as-you-go progressive” we could stand to see a few more of in this country.

One of the best of this new breed of leaders is Atlanta’s inspiring mayor, 41-year-old Kasim Reed. A former Georgia state senator, Reed won Atlanta’s mayoral race in December 2009 by 714 votes. The day he took office, Atlanta had $7.4 million in reserves, an out-of-control budget and was laying off so many firefighters there were only three personnel on a truck, below national standards. A year later, it has $58 million in reserves, and Reed has a 70 percent approval rating — which he earned the hard way.

Friedman goes on to recount some of the tough fiscal decisions Reed has made over his first year in office, reallocating funds to do things like hire more Atlanta firefighters, instead of “kicking the can down the road”.

So if it’s true that people aren’t just giving lip-service about “pay-as-you-go” politicos, why haven’t Kasim Reed-types taken offices all across the country, already?

Perhaps I’m expecting a bit much from our purposely slow-and-steady democratic process.

Christa at Pecanne Log and CL’s Thomas Wheatley recently designed – and auctioned off! – a bunch of Atlanta-themed cookie cakes for a recent Burnaway fundraiser.

The cookies themselves are definitely worth a look – especially the Beltline and Bike Shorts man – but nothing gets Christa’s creative writing juices flowing faster than getting to point out the inadequacies of her favorite Atlanta journo.

Thomas is still struggling with expressing himself in an efficient manner via decorative gel. It was really hard for me to hold back when I wanted to mentor him artistically yet not smother his creativity. Often he wanted to use hot pink buttercream frosting to recreate architecture that would look better in a more natural color and with a more delicate line, but I had to sit back and let the Olympic Spirit carry him. Sometimes I would lose my patience and covertly churn out a design (anything you see below that uses cursive script, obviously).

Photo courtesy of Pecanne Log