Fresh Loaf

Jennifer (with Ava & Ellie): You should allow the strollers, because for people with small kids, it’s just not practical to go to a street festival without a stroller. With a small child, you can lose track of them. Even though we love our dog, it’s better not to have them at the festival, because they are unpredictable and they can poo on your foot. Even though my dog is very well-behaved, she does get skittish in the crowds — and if somebody came up behind her and started petting her, who knows.

Daron (with Parker & Buffy): If we can’t bring our babies, they can’t bring theirs. No strollers, no dogs. Dogs are our babies, and for those of us without children, it’s kind of unfair that we can’t bring ours to the festival to enjoy it as well. My dogs are under control all the time. They’re 4 pounds apiece. They’re not going to hurt anyone. There are more dogs vaccinated than kids. Baby strollers are cumbersome, they get in the way, you have to step over them, they park right in front. It’s a mess. It is sort of discrimination.

Barbara (with Scooter & Baby Girl): Dogs should be allowed as long as you control your dog. If you don’t control them or if you don’t clean up their poo, you don’t need to have your dog there. But my dogs are part of my family and they’re in a stroller, so why not? I resent it. They should be allowed to go. There’s nothing wrong with your dog being at these festivals. They’re family and really well-behaved. If you love your dog you take care of it like a baby, probably even more so.

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1) The AVP Volleyball Open continues in Atlantic Station.

2) Comedian DJ Hazard performs at Laughing Skull Lounge.

3) Larry King discusses and signs his memoir, My Remarkable Journey, at Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta.

4) The Out on Film Festival closes at Plaza Theatre with She’s a Boy I Knew and Stand-Up 360: Inside Out.

5) Tony Furtado and Shaun Hopper play Eddie’s Attic.

(Photo courtesy AVP)

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Text messages detailing drunken escapades, regrettable hook-ups and general displays of idiocy can now be recorded for posterity at TextsFromLastNight.com. You can even search by area code!

(404): It doesn’t have to be a walk of shame…just pretend he took you to breakfast.
(404): No one shows this much boob at breakfast

(404): last night I thought his shirt said yale… but this morning it definitely says old navy.

(404): one word: firstdatebathroomanal

(843): lets hang out tonight and do stupid stuff.
(404): Dating you for 6 months was stupid enough. But thanks.

(770): Damn I can’t remmbre the last tome I had sobr sex
(404): Um. I believe with my boyfriend, slut
(770): Fuck. Wron person. But yea

(770): I just barfed on his mom.
(404): You told him you were too drunk to meet his parents. Totally his fault.

(706): I think I’m in Tiajuana
(404): You are not in Tijuana. I saw you an hour ago
(706): I could be

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1) Cirque Imagination’s Montage continues at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

2) East Atlanta Beer Festival returns to the EAV.

3) Composition Gallery and Poetry Atlanta host The Path Worn in the Grass, a marathon Walt Whitman reading.

4) WonderRoot celebrates its one-year anniversary.

5) Sin City Fight Club battles it out at Center Stage.

(Photo courtesy Cirque Imagination)

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Even with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s $25 million lifeline, MARTA’s still nearly $110 million in the red. Yesterday, the transit agency released its budget proposal, which includes several changes it’s mulling to cut costs. Here’s a quick rundown:

MARTA riders could potentially see:

• 25 cent fare increase

• $1 parking fee increases in seven paid lots

• Bus route modification or eliminations

• Ending MARTA train service at midnight

• Longer wait times between trains

MARTA employees could potentially see:

• Annual merit increases eliminated

• Increase in employees’ contributions to health benefit plans

• 10 furlough days

If you want the specific details transit agency’s cash situation, download MARTA’s 2010 budget proposal (PDF).

MARTA will hold public hearings to solicit citizen input about the proposed changes. Those dates and locations are pasted after the jump.

(more…)

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Because I put links to Fresh Loaf blog posts on my Facebook page, and because I’ve been posting a lot of stuff about crime, I’m starting to see a bunch of crime-themed ads appear on my screen when I check-in to Facebook.

So far, none is better than this one:

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure it’s not quite an accurate depiction of how computerized ID theft actually works.

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Georgia Trend magazine this month bestowed Georgia Power CEO Mike Garrett with the title “Most Respected Georgia Businessman.”

You think it’d be a fluff piece. But Garrett’s profile — which in the print edition is bordered by sycophantic ads hilariously congratulating the CORPORATE TITAN for this monumental achievement — is actually eye-opening.

Georgia Trend editor Susan Percy provides some additional details on the utility’s strong-arm effort to pass Senate Bill 31 during the most recent legislative session. That bill, which was recently signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue, allows Georgia Power to charge ratepayers in advance for the financing costs on two new proposed reactors at Plant Vogtle. It was widely lambasted. But bad ideas under the Gold Dome have a way of growing legs and becoming law.

Percy’s one of the first journalists we’ve seen to ask Garrett on the record about the controversial legislation — as well as the steamrollin’ way the bill was shoved down lawmakers’ throats.

(more…)

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According to blogger and friend-o-Fresh Loaf Reporter-Cub, the Perception of Crime in Atlanta just broke into a van belonging to Americorps volunteers fixing-up a park in Kirkwood.

Perception of Crime Watch® is on the Twitter at #PoCATL.

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• I kinda don’t wanna see how much bite this barking dog has: North Korea test-fires another short-range missile.
• Long overdue: Pentagon plans to create a new division solely for combating threats in cyberspace.
• Half-full? First quarter G.D.P. is slightly better than anticipated.
• Bloody civil war: More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan military in the last days of that country’s recent armed conflict.
• Dear Time Magazine: Perfect choice of picture. That is all.
• Further evidence of GOP implosion: Talking heads go apeshit all over the internet.
• Quick 15 minutes: Now that the media’s infatuation with Susan Boyle is done, they’re practically driving her to the mad house.
• Heard this before: New Microsoft-developed search engine hopes to be a “player” in the Google-dominated web search industry.

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According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 60% of all men arrested in Atlanta in 2008 tested positive for an illegal drug.

Atlanta’s percentage of arrestees peeing dirty is actually on the low-end of the 10 major cities surveyed.

But get this, according to USA Today Atlanta is the only city in the survey where cocaine is the most popular drug among those arrested.

In the other nine cities survey, marijuana is the most popular drug among arrestees.

Question: Is there a worse job in the world than jailhouse urine specimen collector?

(A jaunty tilt of my crack pipe to Christa at pecanne log for informing me of this story.)

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1) Bonnie “Prince” Billy plays Variety Playhouse.

2) itodenwa opens at Whitespace Gallery.

3) The Exotic Dancer National Championships rage on at Pink Pony South.

4) Comedian Henry Cho performs at the Punchline.

5) And the Winner Is continues at Stage Door Players.

(Photo by Jesse Fischler)

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Rev. Brenda Lee of Macon’s Informer newspaper was forcibly removed from the press area adjacent to Air Force One in Los Angeles today.

NBC Los Angeles says the incident took place after Lee said she wanted to hand President Obama a note about same-sex marriage.

Thank you Jeff Emanuel at Peach Pundit for finding the story, and also for directing me to the Informer’s web site where, among other similarly alluring anecdotes, Rev. Lee claims she is “one of the first women to have my feet washed on Maundy Thursday in Rome by Father Paul Maloney.” Okie-doke then.

And just so there’s no confusion, the Brenda “dragged away by Secret Service” Lee is NOT the same person as Brenda “born in Atlanta and moved away to become of the most popular singers of the 1960s” Lee.

Here’s that Brenda Lee:

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Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is once again the target of angry, metaphorical hunks of wood.

Southern Voice reports the gay G.O.P. group Georgia Log Cabin Republicans has called for Franklin’s resignation.

The latest rash of murders, robberies, hate crimes, and lawlessness are a direct result of her failure to provide proper protection by an effective police force . . [w]e are also urging Governor Sonny Perdue to take control of the situation, and requesting that he order in the Georgia National Guard or Georgia State Patrol into Atlanta to help stabilize the current crime mayhem in the city.” 

I’m pretty sure they mean Perception of Crime Mayhem.

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This photo was taken at 7 Forsyth St N.W. on May 22. Red Clark is working on one of his regular clients Dante. Red estimates he has given 30,000 haircuts in his 10 years working as a barber. He says he got the cross tattoo on his arm to remind himself “to keep the faith.” I chose the photo for this week’s Time and Place because to me it captures the intimacy of getting a haircut. How often do you see two men interact in public in this way?

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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At last week’s State Transportation Board meeting in Douglas, Ga., Erik Steavens of the department’s intermodal program director briefed board members on land negotiations that are underway between GDOT and Atlanta Beltline Inc., the agency tasked with designing the planned 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit that will one day circle the city’s urban core.

GDOT owns two pieces of transit right-of-way that ABI has marked as part of the project’s “spine” — a small sliver in Southeast Atlanta and a larger one in Southwest Atlanta.

After the jump, screenshots from Steavens’ presentation to GDOT board members depicting the properties, including what kind of profit the department might see from their sale.

(more…)

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South Peachtree Creek Trail in DeKalb County

Another shot has been fired in the ongoing dispute between a DeKalb County civic association and the nonprofit PATH Foundation over a one-mile multi-use trail north of Decatur.

On May 19, the Three Forks Heritage Alliance and three of its members filed an $8 million lawsuit in DeKalb County Superior Court against the trail builder, claiming it should return money it’s received to construct several projects in the county, including one that connects Medlock and Mason Mill Parks.

A press release from the alliance announcing the lawsuit claims that “monies paid to PATH on this and at least seven other projects should be returned, in whole, to the DeKalb County coffers, which currently has a $64 million deficit.”

(more…)

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Asked earlier this year about residents who are worried about crime in their neighborhoods, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said residents are feeling edgy and disturbed not because of crime itself, but because scary news about crime spreads fast and far over e-mail.

Mayor Shirley Franklin seems to agree with Pennington. She insists Atlanta is safer today than it’s been for decades.

According to Pennington and Franklin, Atlanta isn’t experiencing a crime wave. It’s experiencing a perception of crime wave.

I agree.

I also believe we must band together as a community to put a stop to this emotional menace.

So I’m starting a new project here: Perception of Crime Watch®.

(more…)

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Atlanta neighborhoods burdened by abandoned or foreclosed homes might soon see a little help thanks to nearly $14 million in federal funds.

From D.L. Bennett at the AJC:

Atlanta has chosen 15 local companies to split nearly $14 million in hopes of combating the foreclosure crisis that’s left several neighborhoods in the south and west parts of the city struggling for survival.

Atlanta is the first city to award money under the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

…

The Atlanta City Council has already agreed to give four companies about $3 million obtained from the program that will pay for flipping houses to fix troubled neighborhoods.

On Monday, the council plans to award its remaining $11 million to 11 more companies who are all promising to repair and either sell or rent homes and apartments in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods.

Bennett has more details on the different companies and what they propose.

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>> SHOCKER: Even exorbitantly-priced fashion houses aren’t safe from the clutches of the recession.

>> For those who championed the use of waterboarding, how do you feel about rape and the “use of wires” in sexual assault?

>> POWERLESS COUPLE: Newt and Rush team up to spread the rhetoric on Sotomayor.

>> Note to pedophiles — child porn in cartoon form is still not OK.

>>AWESOME: Everybody’s doing the nuclear shuffle. … Cuba and Russia renew joint nuclear research.

>> Lest we forget all the accomplishments of our monkey brethren — celebrate the 50th aniversary of the original space monkeys.

>> WTF?: Biblical quotes adorned the intelligence briefings between Rumsfeld and Bush. … Separation of church and state, what?

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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An Atlanta attorney has announced her candidacy to represent East Atlanta, Cabbagetown and West DeKalb neighborhoods in the state House.

Asha Jackson, an East Atlanta resident and partner at Atlanta firm Carlock, Copeland and Stair, is the second person to join the House District 58 race. Robbin Shipp, the district’s former representative, resigned last month.

“I’m extremely excited about this opportunity for our district,” Jackson said in a press release. “It’s an honor to be asked to run and follow up on the good work done by Rep. Shipp. There are a lot of challenges facing our neighborhoods – the need for better schools, more good jobs with good benefits, and more affordable healthcare – I know together we can make Fulton and DeKalb counties an even better place to live, work and raise our families.”

(more…)

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PRETTY IN GREEN: The dining room at WaterHaven

Knife’s Edge: Staff infection (Richard Blais gives us a glimpse into the restaurant world’s make or break pre-game huddle.)

Ghetto burger for sale? (Say it ain’t so. Looks like Miss Ann could be retiring.)

Grazing: First Look: 5 Seasons Westside and WaterHaven (It’s surprising that new restaurants are still opening around town given the current economy, but Cliff is pleasantly pleased with both of these new offerings.)

Restaurant Review: Taverna Fiorentina (Besha enjoys the “soul-pleasing Italian dishes” at Andreas Montobbio’s Taverna Fiorentina.)

Cheap Eats: TINY Bistro (Jennifer Zyman visits this cute new spot in the booming Westside.)

Upton Sinclair did not eat here (Cliff shares his thoughts — and photos! — about the newly opened Abattoir.)

Read more from Omnivore

(Photo by James Camp)

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1) Isis plays the Earl.

2) A Cappella Books and Euclid Avenue Yacht Club team up for the Goodness of Guinness.

3) Screen on the Green kicks off in Centennial Olympic Park with Back to the Future.

4) Out on Film begins at Plaza Theatre.

5) The Hawks play 529.

(Photo Ipecac Recordings)

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Newt hearts Twitter

Newt’s bringing his unique brand of sanctimony to the Twit-o-sphere.

Via AJCer Jim Galloway’s Political Insider blog:

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich just twittered the following to his closest 344,357 friends about five minutes ago, never mentioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor by name:

“White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.” …

The aide said the “tweets” are genuine, which makes Gingrich the most prominent Republican yet to take a hard line against Obama’s nominee for the high court.

Newt Gingrich, defender of “white man racists” and traditional marriages. We Georgians should be proud.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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In a packed meeting at its downtown headquarters, the Atlanta Regional Commission threw cash-strapped MARTA a life preserver today, approving a reallocation of $25 million in federal stimulus dollars to help the transit agency avoid drastic service reductions.

Officials stressed the one-time funding shuffle wasn’t a bailout. Under the terms of the agreement, MARTA will shift money from its capital fund to pay for MARTA-related road projects that will benefit the region.

Today’s one-time move by the ARC proved necessary after the Georgia General Assembly failed to pass legislation earlier this year that would allow MARTA more control over its funding. MARTA officials said the transit agency risked cutting a full day of service should new funding not be secured.

The deal wasn’t met with enthusiasm from everyone.

(more…)

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Southern Voice reports local businessman Steve Brodie now has an opponent in the race for the Atlanta City Council seat serving the Midtown, Morningside and Druid Hills neighborhoods:

The race to see who will be the Atlanta City Council’s next District 6 representative is a gay vs. gay contest once again.

On Wednesday morning, gay business owner and community volunteer Alex Wan met with Southern Voice to announce his bid for the seat, which is currently held by Anne Fauver, the Atlanta City Council’s only openly gay member.

…

“I think an openly gay person or Asian-American person being elected to City Council sends a huge signal about how open the city is,” Wan said. “If there is representation on the governing council of the city, I think that alone sends a huge message about openness and diversity.”

This will be Wan’s second bid for elected office. In 2004, he ran for the District 57 seat in the Georgia House held by gay-friendly incumbent Pat Gardner. Wan, who lost to Gardner in the Democratic primary, would have been the first openly gay man and first Asian American in the state legislature.

More details at Southern Voice.

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