It’s always nice when Decatur gets good press but there’s really nothing better than the sweet love of a piece that not only sings our praises but does so while contrasting us with other DeKalb towns choking on Decatur’s leading-edge dust.

Such was the case in Saturday’s AJC as local commentator (and retired furrier!) Bill York, in this op-ed, waxed fawningly over our little ‘burg:

“Decatur has been a runaway success. Others waited too long and moved too slowly.”

The real point of the piece is that, in these times of scaled back consumer spending, it’s the towns that previously invested in their commercial districts that are best surviving. Even thriving. He goes on to detail faltering efforts around the county and concludes with the assertion that, to be competitive, towns need to be prettied up and rents need to be jimmied down.

I don’t suppose I disagree with any of that, and it’s nice to see Decatur get some much-deserved props, but I do think a bit more ink could have been applied to just how difficult such ideas are to implement.

Bottom line, every city thinks they deserve to be great but few cities actually are. That’s because saying you’re great is easy. Being great isn’t.

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