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

Many of us agree that Atlanta has its problems.  Heck, we probably wouldn’t have much to talk about if we were as satisfied with Atlanta as many are with Decatur.

And many of those problems revolve around “infrastructure” and a general lack of foresight up at the Capitol.

In a recent article on “Newgeography”, titled “Is It Game Over For Atlanta?“, author Aaron Renn argues that recent declines of “in-migration” expose Atlanta’s short-comings in a post-construction boom era.  And compared to other late 20th century boom-towns like Dallas and Houston, Atlanta’s growth is slowing.  This leads Renn to the conclusion that Atlanta’s life-cycle may be at “maturity”, soon to be out-classed by Dallas and Houston, along with smaller regional up-starts like Charlotte.

But after a couple decades of unprecedented growth, I’m not sure if a population slowdown is such a bad thing.  Such times allow a city to come down from its building euphoria and allows it time to reassess.

So while I agree with Renn that it’s clearly time for Atlanta to decide what sort of city it wants to be in the 21st century, I choose to be more optimistic…probably because I actually live here.  Atlanta’s growth may be slowing, but perhaps its a necessary step to get political leadership to look for a new path of development incentives and infrastructure improvements beyond growing at the fringes.

Thanks to TeeRus and Brad for pointing out this article!

There’s an excellent article in this morning’s AJC about all of the Peachtree Street development projects that never made it off the drafting table before the recession hit.  The article itself is entitled “The City That Was Never Built”, but it reads more like a wishful romp through “The City That Could Have Been”.

While I enjoyed the article and Peachtree’s development ride of the aughts as much as the next city advocate – especially Midtown’s – I am also sort of glad for the break in the action.  Yes, I know that development historically comes in spurts propelled by the national economy, but I think we pretty much exhausted the market this time around.  And instead of thinking too much about “what could have been”, which is a guilty pleasure shared by both progressive city advocate’s version and preservationists alike, we should spend more of our energy reflecting on all that was accomplished.

Peachtree’s transformation over the past decade has been incredible, but I for one am glad for the break in the action.  Not just because supply had far exceeded demand, but also because I becoming a bit worried that our clearly 1970s downtown, would soon have two glassy, one-decade sister business districts up the street. Healthy growth is one thing, artificial growth is another.

And besides, even though we may no longer be building at a rapid pace, fulfilling that city-wide, consumerist desire, Atlanta’s next decade could prove even more interesting than it’s last.  If and when these newest projects fill with residents, we could see the true revitalization of a downtown, once thought to have been abandoned forever.

The AJC reports this morning that Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commish – and gubanitorial candidate – John Oxendine announced Monday that the city of Atlanta’s fire safety rating had fallen from a “2” to a “4” in a recent insurance services report.  As a result the city has nine months to improve services or the city’s rating will drop to a “3”.

Aside from suffering from poorer service, city residents would also see insurance premiums rise.

Aside from just imparting the news, Oxendine took the opportunity to slam the city for recent cuts in service and asked them to consider making “life safety a priority.”  The Atlanta City Council returned the complement by pointing out the fact that the Fire Safety rating in Oxendine’s own county of Gwinnett was currently a “4.”

Happily, as Steve pointed out in an email this morning, Decatur’s fire safety rating remains a solid “2.”  According to Steve, Alpharetta is the only other entity in the metro area with such a high rating.

As reported by RealClearPolitics, according to the Kaufmann Foundation Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (say that five times fast), Atlanta is the country’s most ambitious city “with nearly 200 more entrepreneurs per 100,000 people than the second runner-up.” (h/t: AJC’s BizwriterKristi)

But note that this is based on 2008 data, which includes almost months of pre-crash activity.  It will be interesting to see how Atlanta entrepreneurial activity holds up to its rivals “post-recession.”

Hopefully these scores of entrepreneurs aren’t heeding the words coming from city of Atlanta mayoral candidates, Kasim Reed and Lisa Borders, who during a recent real-estate endorsement induced euphoria exclaimed to the AJC…

“The real estate development community is to Atlanta what the financial services industry is to New York,” Reed said at a Midtown Starbucks one recent morning.

Borders, in a phone conversation, said almost the same thing: “Development is to Atlanta what cars are to Detroit and entertainment is to L.A.”

Both candidates better hope to hell that their statements aren’t true.   Tying Atlanta’s future to the real estate market seems like a sick death wish.

And why would you even mention Detroit?!

Rule 1 when running for mayor: never EVER speak the word “Detroit.”  At most you can say “Motown” and even then you better be lamenting the once great music scene.