Fresh Loaf

Number of building permits issued in Decatur in 1995: 349

Number of building permits issued in Decatur in 2007: 822

Percent decrease in car volume at the intersection of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Church Street from 2001 to 2006: 20

Population of Decatur in 2000: 18,147

Population of Decatur in 2007: 17,914

Average household size in the U.S.: 2.58

Average household size in metro Atlanta: 2.7

Average household size in Decatur: 2.12

Source: City of Decatur 2008 Annual Report, Decatur Court Traffic Impact Analysis

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— Decatur Metro has found the city’s annual report online. One interesting nugget: Decatur’s population is declining despite a boom in downtown condos. Why? Household size is shrinking in the city.

— And InDecatur brings us up to speed on the latest city news, including Kid Rock’s plea of no contest for his role in a Waffle House brawl in 2007.

— The state’s budget is all in a mess, and flackattack chimes in at Tondee’s Tavern on how state lawmakers are totally out of touch with reality.

— Over at Cracker Squire, Sid discusses how Rand Knight’s union endorsements failed to give him a lift in the U.S. Senate primary. Now that those unions are backing Jim Martin, will it matter in the run-off?

— Drifting Through The Grift thankfully shares another Morning Wooten.

— Just as fun, Preston Craig — the DJ host of the Decatur Social Club — is back online at Kiss Atlanta, with a couple of hot underground bands to help us get our groove on.

— What happens when a good friend reveals that he’s HIV positive? ETK shares a sad, intimate moment on I’m Just Sayin’.

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…Decatur’s traffic declines. That’s what Nick at DecaturMetro discovered when he perused the 38-page traffic study completed by the developers of the proposed 315 W. Ponce project in the smart-growth posterchild’s downtown (more on that project, called Decatur Court, later.)

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Do you find it annoying when the news media uses the name Decatur to refer to places or events that are outside Decatur’s city limits?

The AJC’s coverage of yesterday’s double-murder in DeKalb County was first reported with the headline “2 women killed, children flee in Decatur.” Later in the day, the headline was corrected to “2 women killed, children flee in DeKalb.”

Are there other parts of Atlanta so routinely misidentified?

And, yes, I live in Decatur.

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LIVE MUSIC AT DECATUR BEACH PARTY FRIDAY: “Good evening, Decatur, are you ready to nap?”

(Photo by Dustin Chambers)

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How dirty is Metro Atlanta’s air?

Even the bronze bust of Commodore Stephen Decatur on the Decatur town square has a runny nose.

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Bill McKibben, author of End of Nature and Deep Economy, will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11, at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Parish in Decatur (map here). The event is co-sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book and Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. A collection of his essays, The Bill McKibben Reader, goes on sale tomorrow. One of his more recent works, Fight Global Warming Now – The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community, is worth a look, judging that the General Assembly this year isn’t taking any steps to address the phenomenon.

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The Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island will meet Thursday, Jan. 31, 7-9 p.m., at the Maloof Auditorium in Decatur to discuss the Linger Longer project that is raising a lot of questions about the future of the coastal Georgia getaway.

Visit the group’s website here to find out just what’s at stake. For more information about the Linger Longer project, click here for the developer’s take.

Details about the meeting, pulled from an e-mail release, can be found after the jump.

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Tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Maloof Auditorium in downtown Decatur, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on an ordinance that requires homes with pre-1993 plumbing to be retrofit with water-saving fixtures before they are resold. Supporters of the ordinance, such as DeKalb Commissioner Jeff Rader, say water-saving fixtures could save the county as much as 3.5 million gallons of water every day. It was originally supposed to be voted on in mid-November but was met with opposition by the real-estate industry, claiming such a move would shake the market, pose homeowners and purchasers to possible fines or criminal liability, and would not help ease the current water shortage.

CL will be there. From what we’ve heard, Realtors® will be as well. If you’re for or against it, you should try to attend, too.

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Creative Loafing’s countdown of Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People is a tribute to women and men everywhere struggling to meet the challenges of life in a modern American city.

The top five will be revealed in the next print edition of Creative Loafing, which hits newsstands Thursday, Nov. 8.

No. 7 — Bridgette Vassar

Can’t lure customers to her smoothie shop

(photo by Joeff Davis)

By day, Bridgette Vassar works as a software manager for a department store chain.

At night and on weekends, she works for herself.

In April she opened Silk: A Smoothie Café, a smoothie and dessert shop on the north edge of Decatur’s Oakhurst neighborhood.

Vassar’s vision is ambitious. She pictures Silk as part refreshment stop, part 18th-century French salon; a place where gym rats can stop in for a fruit smoothie spiked with protein powder, and others can sip wine, debate world affairs, or at least snicker at the Harper’s Index. Eventually, she plans to expand to multiple locations.

Before any of that can happen, though, Vassar needs to get over a big hurdle.

She needs some customers. Business is very slow.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got everything, and it’s ready, and the people will come.’ But this is not Field of Dreams. Getting people in here has been the biggest problem.”

Vassar blames the shop’s slow start on a number of factors.

“We didn’t have a well-developed marketing plan.” As a start-up without a well-established brand behind her, she explains, she has to work extra-hard to get neighbors to take a chance on her.

Location is also an issue. Oakhurst is a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, but her shop is away from most of the foot traffic. She looked into renting spaces in pedestrian-heavy Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland, but could not afford them.

“I should know [if she'll stay in business there] within 18 to 24 months,” she says.

Judgment day may come sooner, however, as she recently found out that a Boise, Idaho-based coffee house and bistro, Moxie Java, plans to open its first metro Atlanta store on the opposite end of her retail strip.

“They have smoothies on their home page,” she sighs. “It gives me pause. I don’t think two places like that can survive here.”

Visit Fresh Loaf on Wednesday morning for No. 6 on our countdown of Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People.

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A POURER’S VIEW OF THE GREAT DECATUR BEER FESTIVAL-GOER: I didn’t even have to say “act drunk.” It just sorta happened.

I was a volunteer pourer at the Great Decatur Beer Festival on Decatur’s town square Saturday. The job had two delightful perquisites.

First, I didn’t have to pay the $30 admission to taste many of the 100-plus beers available for sipping, or buy a ticket from the scalpers (yes, scalpers) wandering through Decatur that morning. All 5,000 of the tickets were sold online before Saturday.

Secondly, I got to hear several people tell how much they liked me and appreciated my work. Not my actual, thing-I-get-paid-for work, rather, my beer pouring work. Giving people beer without demanding money in return is a great way to make people like you – particularly people who’ve been been drinking nonstop for the previous five hours.

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BURMA PROTEST IN DECATUR: Pictured on the sign is Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned leader of Burma’s democracy movement.

I accidentally joined a street protest in downtown Decatur on Saturday morning. I say “accidentally” because when I approached the protest to photograph it, a lovely Burmese schoolgirl greeted me with a smile and handed me a protest poster. I couldn’t resist. And really, I didn’t want to. The protest was intended to draw American public attention to the Burmese military dictatorship’s crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Burma. The protest was organized by the girl’s parents, who fled Burma after a similar military crackdown in 1988.

One Burmese man in the protest who barely spoke English told me he’s only been in the U.S. for four weeks. “Did you flee because you protested against the military?” I asked.

“No. Army come my village. Make fire. We leave.”

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As many of you know, the military gangsters who control Burma recently began a violent crackdown against peaceful, pro-democracy demonstrators there. A BBC report estimates up to 10,000 participants have been arrested.

On Saturday, Oct. 6, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., there will be a vigil in downtown Decatur to express public support for the brave Burmese men and women risking their lives to bring democracy to their country.

The vigil takes place at the intersection of Clairemont and East Ponce de Leon avenues. Members of Atlanta’s Burmese refugee community will be among the participants.

Burma is the subject of this week’s Don’t Panic column in CL.

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Edwards – $14,909
Obama – $12,400
Richardson – $4,600

— Decatur Guy at Atlanta Public Affairs lists the top recipients of presidential campaign cash from Decatur.

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Hillary Clinton – 34%
Barack Obama – 25%
John Edwards – 13%
Bill Richardson – 8%

— Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered on a statewide Strategic Vision poll of likely Georgia voters

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So we get to reduce our troop number to pre-Surge levels by summer of ‘08, which means after 6+ years, we will still have a force in Iraq in excess of 120,000 troops.

And that is perceived as progress…

-— FlackAttack at Tondee’s Tavern on Surgin’ Gen. David Petraeus’ troop-deployment projections for Iraq

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Threats. Intimidation. Yard signs. Snotty e-mails. Yes, the knives are out in Oakhurst, where the proposed creation of what would be Decatur’s largest historic district has resulted in a nasty neighborhood-wide squabble in which many homeowners have been forced to choose sides.

Terry Michel, a real estate agent who says she supports voluntary design guidelines rather than city imposed building restrictions, says she’s stopped discussing the issue with neighbors because the rhetoric on both sides has become too overheated.

“The vitriol is off-putting to me,” Michel explains. “It’s like watching Ann Coulter debate Al Frankin.”

So what is it about a historic district that has so many peoples’ knickers in a wad?

Mainly, the argument comes down to control over one’s own property. If a house is included in the district, then the owner would need to get a “certificate of appropriateness” to tear it down, build an addition or make significant exterior changes. Construction plans that aren’t seen as keeping within the historic character of the neighborhood – say, replacing a 1920s Craftsman bungalow with a modernist stucco triplex – may not be allowed.

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From Decatur’s town square, the best sign I’ve seen since Pets N Bait Taxes.

Read to the end:

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