Midtown group’s last-ditch effort to derail Gidewon nightclub
Friday, October 2nd, 2009“Midtown’s future hangs in the balance.”
So claims a letter by the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance that urges Mayor Shirley Franklin and the city’s License Review Board to deny a liquor license application by nightclub impressario Michael Gidewon.
As you’ll recall from our Sept. 7 cover story and other news coverage, the Gidewon family is seeking to open a pair of 10,000-square-foot clubs on Peachtree Street in the shadow of the Loews luxury hotel now under construction and catty-corner from the 1010 Midtown condo tower.
Joined by older brother Alex and three siblings, Gidewon has been the force behind the mega-clubs Vision, Compound and the Velvet Room.Many surrounding neighbors and business owners have loudly denounced the new clubs for weeks now, persuading the Midtown Neighbors’ Association and NPU-E to officially oppose them. The final showdown comes Tuesday, Oct. 6, before the License Review Board. If the LRB recommends denial and Franklin confirms that stance, then the Gidewon’s only recourse would be a lawsuit — which, I believe would be very difficult to win.





















You wouldn’t expect someone so pretty to be capable of such scurrilous behavior.
You may recall mini-scandals over Emma Darnell and her fellow Fulton commissioners using county police cruisers as their personal car service; or Atlanta officials who have been known to use their clout to treat themselves to pricey sports tickets — 

In a move that represents an astounding gift to Lisa Borders’ mayoral opponents, a group calling itself the Coalition of Concerned Clark Atlanta University Students has petitioned for the Council president’s removal from the school’s board of trustees.
Do you have plenty of time on your hands and no life to speak of? Then you’ll want to turn out for a special night of “Mayoral Video and Popcorn,” where you can watch four hours(!) of candidate forums while you drink yourself into a stupor.
Last night was the couch-sitting public’s first window onto the Atlanta mayor’s race, courtesy of a 

Don’t read this expecting an answer because I don’t know. Obviously, websites and social networking have assumed a prominent position in politics since Howard Dean first used the Internets to build a coalition of Deaniacs and Daily Kos became a must-read blog for millions.