Fresh Loaf

Are you smarter than a New Yorker? According to the Daily Beast, not if you’re an Atlantan.

The study ranked 55 metropolitan areas with over 1 million people by criteria such as how many residents had bachelor’s and graduate degrees and the number of higher education institutions. Other criteria included the sales of nonfiction books and the percentage of eligible people to vote in the last presidential election.

Atlanta ranked as the 23rd smartest American city with an IQ score of 109, while Raleigh-Durham, N.C., was at the top of the list with the highest score of 170.

The dumbest city? Fresno, Calif., with an IQ score of 3.

(Photo by Creative Loafing)

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Does "air sex" count in the survey?

The fine folks at Trojan — a pioneer in reservoir tip technology — have released their States of Pleasure survey, which helps explain why Atlanta is too busy to hate. Apparently, we’re spending much of our time doing the nasty.

Here’s a tidbit from the press release:

Americans rate their sexual satisfaction as only just above average (6.5 out of 10) according to findings from a new survey released today by the makers of Trojan condoms. While U.S. men and women report having sex 84 times a year, or seven times a month, 71 percent say they are always looking for ways to increase pleasure in the bedroom, with 60 percent agreeing pleasure aids such as vibrators or massagers could really spice up lovemaking.

Anyway, back to Atlanta. The survey suggests that the typical Atlantan gets more action — 88 times a year — than the national average of 84; and that, among residents of the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas, we enjoy it the most.

(more…)

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A new AP report on census figures shows Atlanta is among the 25 fastest growing cities in the U.S.

The bureau found the population shifted from 520,368 persons in July 2007 to 537,958 in July 2008, about 3.4 percent.

We’re all so accustomed to gridlocked traffic and construction cranes that “Atlanta is growing” doesn’t seem like news.

It is.

Remember, despite the metro area’s half century of uninterrupted rapid growth, City of Atlanta lost population from the 1970s until the 1990s.

Also of noted: Last week the Atlanta Regional Commission released a report showing metro Atlanta is the second fastest-growing metro area in the country this decade after Dallas. By 2040, metro Atlanta is expected to be home to 8.3 million people.

Good thing local and state leaders are working so well together to meet our transportation and water needs.

(Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the 2000 U.S. Census showed a decline in Atlanta population from 1990. Here are the correct numbers.)

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DANCING FOR JOY: Our photo site just does that for some people. Check it out at clatl.com/photos.

We know you’ve been thinking to yourself, “CL should create a space for all the awesome photos they shoot.” And if you weren’t thinking that, then all the visual desires you never even knew you had have just been fulfilled.

We now have a spot where you can access all the latest galleries shot each week, a new Photo of the Day posted (you guessed it!) every day, and new videos going up every week. You can also check out the thousands of images uploaded by your fellow Atlantans to the CL Flickr feed or read up on what the deal was with each week’s Time and Place photo.

There’s international photo and video news, tidbits and gear updates, along with info on upcoming Atlanta photo community meet-ups and shoot-outs.

Missed the No Doubt concert? We’ve got the photos to make you feel just a little better about it.

Wondering how the hell they get all that sand out of the Decatur Square after the Decatur Beach Party? We’ve got the lowdown on that through video interviews.

Check it out at clatl.com/photos_video.

Of course, we want to hear your feedback. So give us your joys, your grievances, your Atlanta photo knowledge! Send it all our way to photos@cln.com.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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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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City Hall had three separate, unrelated civil cases before the Georgia Supreme Court that received rulings yesterday. The result was a mixed bag with no unexpected blows to city coffers – but no big victories either.

First, the least interesting case: The city was a co-defendant with the state in a wrongful death suit involving a passenger in a taxi that veered off the highway and hit a tree. The state DOT was sued for allowing a tree to remain too close to the Downtown Connector; the city was sued for a botched taxi safety inspection. The High Court ruled there was no compelling evidence to suggest the city was aware of inspection shortcomings. That’s one win for the city.

Next up, a biggie: Atlanta has brought suit against a number of online hotel booking services – Expedia, Travelocity, etc. – because they don’t collect the city-imposed hotel tax when accepting bookings. This is an industry-wide battle being waged by cities across the country over whether online companies are required to collect local taxes on the sales they facilitate.

(more…)

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One of the many downsides about the building boom slowdown: Atlanta was one of several cities catching on to the common sense practice of green building.

According to a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency, the city ranks ninth in the nation when it comes to energy-efficient buildings, behind Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and ahead of Seattle. Los Angeles tops the list.

The federal agency says Atlanta has 97 Energy Star qualified buildings — or 24 million square feet of floorspace. Owners of the buildings save an estimated $16.4 million each year on their energy bills.

To view the top 25 cities with energy-efficient buildings, visit the EPA’s website. You can also view the specific buildings according to city, ZIP code and specifications.

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It’s been a big year for political art. Shepard Fairey’s soviet-styled Obama posters are still all over the place; Sarah Palin has shown up in some great paintings; and the Denver Police Union even designed some political T-shirts. In light of all this recent visual-art politicking, Beep Beep Gallery will show Popaganda, a group exhibit celebrating and criticizing contemporary and traditional propaganda.

Participating artists include Evereman, Rene Arriagada aka Transmit Device, Sat Kirpal Khalsa, Ben Goldman, Travis Dodd aka Machete, Bryan Westberry, Kerri Boles, Kim Feigenbaum,Charstarr, Stenvik Mostrom, Baxter Crane, Bean Summers, J.R. Schulz, Reed Elliot and more.

Popaganda Opens Sat., Jan. 10, 8-11 p.m. Through Feb. 8. Fri.-Sun., noon-6 p.m. 696 Charles Allen Drive. 404-429-3320. www.beepbeepgallery.com.

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GENRE: Gritty, inner-city coming-of-age novel

FIRST LINE: “I’d been at the shelter for two weeks and there was nothing to do but go to counseling or lie on my cot and count the rows of empty cots nailed to the floor or watch TV in the rec room, where the girls cornrowed each other’s hair and went on about pulling a date with Reggie the counselor because he looked like Billy Dee Williams and had a rump-roast ass.”

NARRATOR VS. AUTHOR: Miles from Nowhere is narrated by Joon, 13, a Korean immigrant living in the Bronx who runs away from home. Nami Mun, 40, is a Korean immigrant who grew up in the Bronx and ran away from home as a teenager.

THE PUBLISHER CLAIMS: “Miles from Nowhere will haunt and inspire a generation of readers.”

NEGATIVE PRESS: An Amazon.com reader says, “This book is wacky…I just wanted it to be over…the book was written so scatter-brained that I thought I was reading journal entries.”

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL COMING-OF-AGE MOMENT: “During my runaway years, I kept a journal. I’d write down the events of the day, mostly while riding the subways. Once I sat next to a woman, and I could tell she was reading over my shoulder. I’d write a sentence and she’d make tiny sounds — of either disapproval or dismay. The more I wrote, the louder and more demonstrative she became, saying things outright sometimes and shaking her head. What I remember most is how she never addressed me directly. I don’t think she even saw me, really. Her eyes stayed on my journal and I got the sense that even if I didn’t exist in her world, my words could.”

RESUME BOLD PRINT: Mun graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, received her masters from the University of Michigan, and teaches creative writing at Columbia College Chicago. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and scholarships from the Corporation of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.

BIG NAME HYPE FROM THE BACK COVER: “Suspenseful, funny, painful, and poetic, Nami Mun’s debut shows a talent for close observation and a prose which fills the grit of street life with flashes of gold.” — Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander

Nami Mun comes to A Capella Books/The Opal Gallery on Jan. 19, 7 p.m.

(Photo courtesy Amazon.com)

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According to an AJC story that cites a mysterious “20-city index,” home prices in Atlanta are down:

From September 2007 through September of this year, Atlanta’s prices have fallen 9.5 percent.

But they’re also up:

Despite declines in 11 out of the past 14 months, Atlanta’s home prices are still up 22.7 percent since January 2000.

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Annual salary that an adult with one school-age child needs to earn in Fulton County to be considered self-sufficient: $33,200

Amount that a parent in Fulton County earning $33,200 should spend on transportation, monthly: $53

Cost of a 30-day MARTA pass: $52.50

Percentage of Fulton County’s working population that uses public transportation: 9.3

Maximum hourly wage that an adult with one child could earn and still fall below the federal poverty line: $6.75

Federal minimum wage: $6.55

Hourly wage that an Atlantan raising two children would have to earn to be self-sufficient: $19

Hourly wage a Bostonian would have to earn: $30

Rank of Atlanta among 11 cities surveyed for highest cost of self-sufficiency: 9

Rank of Boston: 1

Percentage increase in the number of Fulton County residents who filed first-time unemployment claims in October 2008 versus October 2007: 66

Percentage increase in both Cobb and Gwinnett counties: 83

Sources: 2008 Self-Sufficiency Standard for Georgia, Georgia Department of Labor

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Just about every year, the city of Atlanta asks the state Legislature to create a local gaming authority, presumably to explore the possibility of bringing some kind of gambling to town. The item has been on the city’s legislative wish list so long that it rarely raises eyebrows anymore. Could this year – as cash-strapped  governments everywhere cast about for new sources of revenue – be different?

Mayor Shirley Franklin has again added it to her list and yesterday had a chat with local lawmakers who seemed open to considering gambling as an option.

“There’s a general sense that we’ll see gaming within the city limits and I concur,” Franklin said.

OK, not exactly an impassioned plea for casinos, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Not one to put lipstick on a pig, Franklin pithily summed up the city’s financial picture: “We’re in a downward spiral.”

Nearly all of the mayor’s other requests focused on small tax and fee increases that would bring the city an additional million or two here and there. A casino licensing agreement and vice taxes on gambling could, on the other hand, add tens of millions to city coffers, in addition to helping jump-start redevelopment of Downtown south of Marietta Street – assuming, as most folks do, that a casino would be located at Underground Atlanta.

(more…)

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Shirley Franklin finally used the “F word” today in the face of a bleak city revenue forecast.

Unfortunately for municipal employees, that word is “furloughs.”

Starting next month, through the end of the current fiscal year next June 30, all city workers – including police officers and firefighters – will have their work weeks trimmed by four hours. Department heads and managers will be responsible for determining how to reduce staff hours by 10 percent without slashing city services, Franklin announced at a hastily called afternoon press conference.

Still, the mayor conceded, the cutbacks likely will have “some implications” for services.

Franklin’s actions came in reaction to financial reports showing city revenues have been steadily falling for months. Through the first quarter of the fiscal year, she said, collections of sales taxes, property taxes and license fees – the city’s largest revenue sources – have all declined, pulling general fund revenues down by 12 percent.

(more…)

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Atlanta is one of more than 80 cities where protests are planned against California’s recently approved gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8.

Judging from traffic on Join the Impact, the website that gives the protests’ details, there’s major interest in the nationwide event:

Our community has come out in such large numbers to this site that we are actually crashing the server!! This is a fantastic problem to have when you think about it! Basically, this has become such a huge thing, that a server that is meant to handle 10K visitors/hour just can’t handle us!!

In the next 24 hours you will probably see the site switch to a cheesy placeholder… be patient, it’s just temporary.

Georgia outlawed gay marriage in 2004 (even though the act already was illegal) and is among 30 states to do so in recent years.

The Atlanta protest will be held at City Hall East, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave the State Capitol, 214 Capitol Ave., on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 1:30 p.m.

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Ann Louis Nixon Cooper, the 106-year-old Atlantan whom President-elect Obama referred to in his victory speech, turns out to be quite a lady.

The Shelbyville, Tenn., native moved with her dentist husband to Atlanta in 1922 — when she was either 19 or 20. She knew W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and other 20th African-American intellectuals. She also was active in community activities, including a tutoring program at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Obama used the sweep of Cooper’s life to launch into a call-response evocation of his “Yes We Can” mantra:

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

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Local grassroots arts organization Idea Capital has tapped Shana Robbins, Jason Kofke and Rory Golden as its fall 2008 awards recipients. Robbins will receive a cool grand, and Kofke and Golden will get $500 and $250, respectively, to pursue experimental art projects.

From today’s press release:

Ms. Robbins will use the cash to fund a multi-media performance-based work
dealing with the “Monstrous Feminine,” while Mr. Kofke has proposed a city-wide
street art campaign titled “Everything Will Be OK,” which includes both permitted
and guerilla art tactics. Mr. Golden will create a fictional visual narrative
installation titled “You Think I Can Eat All That Chicken Here?” which includes a
150-year-old ex-slave, food addiction, and an extreme religious conversion.

Idea Capital was founded by Susan Todd-Raque, Stuart Keeler, Pam Rogers, Louise Shaw, and Cinqué Hicks “to encourage experimentation and investigation with funds designed to give artists permission
to pursue new ideas.” Visit the group’s website for more info on membership, donations and future grants. See examples of their art below.

Full disclosure: Hicks is CL’s freelance visual arts critic.

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1. Early voting becomes advanced next week By Scott Henry

2. Why early voting scares Eric: The untold story By Scott Henry

3. DA’s flawed Troy Davis argument By Mara Shalhoup

4. Bishop’s Eddie Long commits sin of pride on Real Housewives of ATL By Andisheh Nouraee

5. Freaks and veeps: The L5P Halloween Parade By Andisheh Nouraee

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The Humane Society of the United States is bringing to Atlanta an anti-dogfighting program that it says was successful in Chicago. The idea is to use people from the community as advocates against dogfighting; to show that pit bulls and other breeds frequently targeted by dog fighters are better as loving companions; and to help law enforcement crack down on fighting rings.

More in the press release after the jump. (more…)

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Two recent elections — 2002, when Republicans captured the state Senate, and 2004, when they took control of the House — brought sweeping changes to the state Legislature.

Don’t expect any such drama this year, especially when it comes to the incumbent-friendly state legislative districts in Fulton County. Politicians have gotten very good at tweaking district lines to create seats that are solidly Republican or Democratic; that’s particularly true in Fulton, where there’s a clear divide between relatively upscale suburbs and more economically diverse urban areas.

For instance, state Sen. Dan Moody, R-Alpharetta, may have built an unimpressive record that includes sponsoring Gov. Perdue’s toxic bill to allow private developers to condemn private land. But his Democratic opponent, Pakistan-born businessman Akhtar Sadiq, who’s run several times in recent years, represents a meager threat in North Fulton’s District 56.

Likewise, in Alpharetta’s House District 47, that city’s former mayor, Republican state Rep. Chuck Martin, likely has little to fear from his Democratic challenger, businessman Tony Patel.

Despite their lack of political experience, we’d urge you to vote for the Democrat in either of those races. Before you think that’s unduly partisan, consider two things: 1) Neither Sadiq nor Patel stands a chance at winning, but we as voters can help ourselves by letting elected officials know that they might someday be vulnerable — particularly if there’s a message we want to send them; 2) Both Martin and Moody need to be sent a message. They’ve largely followed the state’s Republican leadership in failing to come up with serious solutions to Georgia’s mounting transportation, environmental, fiscal and educational problems.

If officeholders ever have earned a protest vote, it’s the partisan foot soldiers who have marched this state into swamp filled with mosquitoes.

Check out CL’s 2008 Voters’ Guide and add your comments to races you care about. On Oct. 21, come back to find a handy cheat-sheet to guide you — especially on the obscure races.

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Short on cash? Can’t get a loan? Want to sell that stereo, television, or peg leg? There’s always the pawn shop. Stop by Jerry’s Pawn Shop on the corner of Prior and Decatur. Dave Adelman owns Jerry’s Pawn Shop at the corner of Prior and Decatur streets downtown.

Where are you from originally and how did you get into the pawn shop business?
Originally from New Haven, Conn. I moved here in the 1970’s. How I got into the Pawn business was I got married in 1975 to my present wife, and her father was in the pawn business. But I never thought about getting into the pawn business — I had never been in a pawn shop before. I was in between jobs, and we were offered jobs in other cities but we wanted to stay here. So he had an employee in the hospital, and he needed somebody in the store just to help him out. So he asked me to come down and help him in between my job search and the rest is history. I kinda just fell in love with it. That was 30 years ago. It will be thirty years in ’09. (more…)

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Gov. Sonny Perdue’s plan for fixing a hemorrhaging state budget would cost Georgia homeowners upward of an extra 200 bucks a year — but it could end up costing Republicans even more.

With revenue collections now clogging the toilet, Perdue announced earlier this month that projections were indicating a $1.6 billion (yes, that’s a “B”) shortfall in the $20 billion current-year state budget. Part of his proposed remedy – eliminating the state Homeowner Tax Relief Grant – can be viewed as an affront to hardworking Georgia families struggling to make financial ends meet.

Or, if you’re a Democratic strategist, you can dance a jig and thank your nondenominational deity for yet another in a string of priceless political gimmes from a state Republican Party that seems determined to shoot itself in the foot with an AK-47.

But let’s back up a moment for a remedial course on Georgia taxes. The tax-relief grant in question was an initiative passed 10 years ago by then-Gov. Roy Barnes, under which the state reimburses cities, counties and school systems for a large chunk of local property-tax bills. The program has much the same effect as a homestead exemption, saving the typical taxpayer between $200 and $300 a year.

Read the rest if this article here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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The departure of Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders from the Atlanta mayor’s race earlier this week has, by political strategists’ calculation, left behind a large window of opportunity for the right candidate.

Specifically, we mean someone backed by the Atlanta business community – anointed by the Chamber of Commerce, as it were. Borders, a protege of mega-developer Tom Cousins, had been that person, but now she’s out.

Therefore, the buzz of the moment has concentrated on a well-known and universally respected chief executive, a man of unique achievement who’s arguably done more than anyone since Ted Turner to restore the vibrancy of Atlanta’s downtown business district.

(more…)

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The growth of the Atlanta metropolitan area is finally slowing. Not so for Atlanta proper, though. This is coming from the Atlanta Regional Commission.

First the bad news (or, depending on your opinion of sprawl, the good news):

The population of the 10-county region increased by 70,200 people between April 1, 2007 and April 1, 2008, the smallest increase since 2003 and 16 percent lower than the annual average increase of this decade.

Now, the part that really gets Gwinnett’s goat:

Despite the slowdown in the rest of the region, growth in the City of Atlanta remains robust with its largest single-year population gain in almost 40 years, up 13,100 people. The City’s annual growth also marks the first time in at least four decades that the City added more new residents than Gwinnett County.

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 — The good news is that the Shelbinator appears to be back from writing some dissertation or another. And what’s he brought back with him? An “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure checker, courtesy of the McCain campaign. Send in a $25 contribution to his “four more years of Dubya” campaign, and you can get one, too.

— Speaking of petroleum, Tondee’s Tavern has some ideas on how the Dems can turn the off-shore drilling debate to their favor.

– The Daly Briefing lets fly with some inadvertent military humor in his dispatch from Iraq. Watch out for Foxx, the little kitten who thinks the world is his toy.

— The underground supper club Rogue Apron threw a dinner bash with a Mediterranean theme, and Disposable Income was there to give us a pictorial account. Yum. I want an invite to the next one.

— Delta has announced it will add in-flight WiFi on its entire fleet of planes by 2009, which makes Clayton over at Peach Pundit cry with joy.  Me, too. Nothing like a coffee shop with wings; one more place I can work.

— Over at Pecanne Log, Christa has extracted the Netflix list of favorite Atlanta movies. And even though Atlanta is the gay Mecca of the South, judging from the list it would seem straight people here no longer use Netflix.

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The pro-gun group GeorgiaCarry.org filed suit in federal court yesterday claiming the city of Atlanta cannot ban state firearms license holders from carrying weapons in the Hartsfield-Jackson terminal.

Last night I spoke to the group’s president, attorney Edward Stone, who revealed one of the group’s possible legal strategies against the city.

As you might (not) have read, yesterday Mayor Shirley Franklin and Hartsfield-Jackson General Manager Ben DeCosta said Atlanta is entitled to ban guns from the airport terminal, despite a new state law allowing firearms license holders to carry weapons while on public transportation.

Franklin and DeCosta say the new law does not apply to the airport because the airport is covered by state code 16-11-127 which restricts possession of weapons in public buildings and at public gatherings. (more…)

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