Fresh Loaf

An East Atlanta community activist and businessman has joined the race to represent Cabbagetown, East Atlanta and west DeKalb in the state House of Representatives.

Kevin Johnson announced his House District 58 candidacy today, joining attorney Asha Jackson and lobbyist Michael McPherson in the race to fill the seat vacated by Robbin Shipp. In late April, she resigned halfway through her second term.

A special election has yet to be scheduled.

From a press release from the Johnson campaign:

Johnson, an East Atlanta resident, has extensive political experience. Most recently, his work on a state and federal level to reform unfair credit card practices has been praised locally and nationally. In May, his efforts led to legislation in the Credit CARD Act of 2009 (signed into law by President Obama), which addresses unethical consumer profiling in communities like East Atlanta. Furthermore, Johnson has worked on major political campaigns, including a congressional campaign and President Obama?s presidential campaign.

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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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The vacant state House seat serving the Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown and West DeKalb neighborhoods has at least one name gunning for it — Cabbagetown resident Michael McPherson.

The 34-year-old candidate — Democrat, of course — serves on the Cabbagetown Initiative Community Development Corporation and Stacks/Fulton Cotton Mill HOA Advisory boards. He was a member of a recovery effort after the March 2008 tornado that slammed the neighborhood.

If elected, McPherson says he’d push for legislation to help community groups similar to those that assisted in the tornado recovery effort — especially those which aided senior citizens. He also says he’d analyze proposed tax breaks to ensure they don’t sap cities and counties’ abilities to fund public services.

He says in a press release: “I will weigh all the so-called tax relief initiatives against the effects they will produce, such as property tax breaks that produce nominal results for the individual, yet impact local governments so severely that services like Fire and Police are cut across the board.”

(more…)

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A Democrat state representative serving the Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown and west DeKalb neighborhoods resigned from office today, citing concerns that her new job as a Fulton County prosecutor presented a conflict of interest under Georgia law.

Robbin Shipp, who’s served one term in the Georgia General Assembly, submitted her resignation to Gov. Sonny Perdue this morning.

Georgia law prohibits lawmakers from also working in state government. The Fulton County district attorney’s office is an arm of the state’s judicial branch.

Shipp joined the DA’s office as a senior assistant district attorney in October 2008 after serving as Grady Health System’s general counsel. At the time, she says, both she and DA Paul Howard inquired with the State Bar of Georgia if her dual roles as prosecutor and state representative posed a conflict of interest. She says the state bar issued unofficial opinions that said she was in the clear.

During the legislative session, however, Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s office raised concerns with Howard about her service in the General Assembly.

(more…)

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Average percent decrease in the price of an existing single-family home in metro Atlanta from late 2007 to late 2008: 10.5

Years since Atlanta saw a double-digit decrease in home prices: 17

Of 20 metro areas, rank of Atlanta among those with the most severely decreasing home prices: 12

Percentage that home prices dipped in Phoenix, the hardest hit city: 32.7

Decrease in Dallas, the city to fare best: 3

Percentage increase in Atlanta home prices from June to July — the last month home prices rose: 0.4

Average percent decrease in home prices in Druid Hills from the fall of 2007 to fall of 2008: 20

Average percent increase in home prices in Cabbagetown from the fall of 2007 to fall of 2008: 14

Average percent increase in Benteen Park, over the same time period: 57

(Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

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I have a polite request of the organizers of the Cabbagetown Chomp & Stomp chili cook-off and festival: Please have more chili next year.

Unfortunately, this writer was among the many attendees of the Cabbagetown Chomp & Stomp chili cook-off who arrived too late to actually eat any chili. By the time I got there (2:30pm) all the chili appeared to have been eaten. I’m not mad, but I did go home and make chili afterwards.

Even chili-less, there was plenty to occupy me, including beer (of which there was plenty on tap), bluegrass music (which I suppose is where the second-half the of Chomp & Stomp come from), and sports. The bobbing-for-brussel-sprouts competition was nice – especially the MC’s deadpan comment to competitors reminding them its not necessary to immerse one’s entire body in water to grab the floating veggies.

It being hipster heaven, every second of the event is documented on Flickr.

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Awesome news. Developers say the full-service grocer planned for the old Atlanta Dairies location will be a “mainstream” store, but not a high-end chain such as Whole Foods or Fresh Market. Regardless, if you live nearby, you’re getting a place within walking distance to buy food.

(Thanks to Paul Donsky at the AJC)

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The week after two taggers and the man who attacked them reached a peaceful resolution over the highly charged issue of how much graffiti is too much in Cabbagetown, tensions in the neighborhood flared again.

This time, it was Atlanta police who cracked down.

At around 2:30 a.m. this morning, muralists with an out-of-state art collective called Trust Your Struggle were putting up a mural in the Krog Street tunnel when four patrol cars responded. Police put an abrupt end to their painting, according to witness Dawn Smith.

About an hour earlier, the artists, who had come to Atlanta to do a free commissioned mural at West End’s Omenala-Griot Afrocentric Museum, arrived with Smith at the Cabbgetown bar 97 Estoria. At the bar, Smith and several other patrons mentioned that the muralists should paint something in the tunnel, which is widely perceived by graffiti artists and Cabbagetown residents as a “free space” for graffiti-styled murals.

“Neighbors, people from Estoria all gathered around” to watch them paint, Smith says.

Within 15 minutes, Smith says, the cops arrived. “They proceeded to harass and threaten to arrest people,” she says. “It was really this tense standoff.”

(more…)

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After this week’s story about the tensions between Cabbagetown residents and local graffiti artists went to press, we learned that the man ticketed by police for hiding in a tree and pouncing on two taggers has made amends with them.

The man, Rodney Bowman, was ticketed for disorderly conduct after he jumped from the tree at 2:30 a.m. one Sunday morning and surprised Joshua Ward and Jesse Jaeger, who were about to spray-paint a railroad wall near the Krog Street Tunnel. Bowman punched Ward in the face, then pulled one of the sparkplugs from Jaeger’s truck in an attempt to keep them from fleeing.

The police also ticketed Ward and Jaeger, for defacing a public building.

All the three men went to court on Monday and said they didn’t want to push the case, so the judge dropped the charges.

“We shook hands, all three of us did,” Bowman told CL. “And I told them that they are welcome to come back and speak with our [neighborhood] association to put their artwork on the wall. And I hope that they do come back and do that.”

As for Jaeger, Bowman said: “I even offered to buy him a set of sparkplugs.”

In an email, Ward wrote that he was pleased with how it all turned out:

“Rodney apologized to me for what he did and now wants us to get a lot of graffiti writers to actually paint murals on the wall, haha things actually turned out to be pretty cool.”

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CABBAGETOWN RELIEF ART AUCTION: “shpg 4 trndo art. hm in 5 :-)”

(photo by Alex Gibbs)

Artists aren’t typically people with a lot of cash on hand, but when their friends and neighbors are in need, they always seem to step up.

Cabbagetown Relief, a benefit concert and silent art auction at Studio 900 in Inman Park, raised $5,500 dollars Saturday for victims of the March 14 tornado that pummeled several intown neighborhoods.

Cabbagetown was among the ‘hoods hardest hit by the storm, with several homes destroyed and the top floor of one the buildings at the iconic Fulton Cotton Mill lofts ripped off. Since Cabbagetown has long been an enclave for creative people, it wasn’t surprising that artful photos of tornado damage in Cabbagetown comprised the bulk of art being auctioned.

According to event co-organizer Michael Pisarri, Cabbagetown Relief will continue to raise money by auctioning art online.

Additionally, the Cabbagetown Neighborhood Improvement Association will try to raise money for tornado victims with the Dine-Out for Tornado Victims event on April 14.

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TORNADO: First Atlanta casualty unearthed from rubble.

CABBAGETOWN: CS Monitor reports on history, demographics and unity in tornado’s aftermath.

ROBO VS. HOBO: Owner of O’Terrill’s in Midtown uses remote-controlled, water-spraying robot to break up groups of ne’er-do-wells on the streets outside his bar. He blames nearby Peachtree and Pine homeless shelter for the problem.

CoCoRaHS: Worst acronym ever.

OBAMA, CLINTON: Exaggerate their political résumés.

MCCAIN: Exaggerates his conservative cred.

SENATE RACE: Rand Knight joins the scramble to run against Chambliss.

CLAYTON: Clayton News Daily profiles Santiago Wood and John W. Thompson, the two candidates for corrective superintendent. Also, Clayton school board meets tonight to discuss the nine SACS mandates.

“DELTALINA”: As they’re calling her. Or maybe “Norweltalina” if that Northwest merger ever happens.

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From the page of Flickr user elemess:

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