Fresh Loaf

First come the slots. Then come the men cavorting with white tigers and the true artistes! But until then…baby steps.

And today, the Atlanta City Council voiced its support  for a plan that could drastically change Underground Atlanta and bring gambling — well, video lottery terminals — to the long suffering downtown attraction. Council voted 11-0 to approve a resolution supporting the proposal and form a committee to study the project.

Underground Atlanta leaseholders Dan O’Leary and John Aderhold say a remake of the area could bring jobs and much-needed revenue to the city. The two recently proposed a $500 million redevelopment plan that would convert Underground Atlanta’s 12 acres into a complex featuring a 29-story hotel, restaurants, shops and lottery terminals.

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SENSE OF DRAMA: Artist Deborah Poynton

The Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta presents its February gallery hop tonight from 6-8 p.m., featuring new exhibitions at all three SCAD-Atlanta galleries (ACA Gallery of SCAD, Trois Gallery, and Gallery See).

Deborah Poynton’s solo exhibition at ACA Gallery, Everything Matters, headlines the event. Poynton typically paints on a grand scale, and her style is a curious synthesis of classical influences: One senses the drama of El Greco’s religious painting and hints of the 19th-century grotesque, each counterbalanced with a modern sobriety. Her recent paintings focus on realistic nude and semi-nude figures in an examination of the “physical and relational connections within her complex tableaux.” Poynton will appear at the gallery in person to deliver an artist’s talk starting at 5 p.m. . Everything Matters continues through March 29.

The other two exhibitions shouldn’t disappoint, either: The Slipper Tongue and Other Works, featuring new works by art history professor Jonathan Field (Trois Gallery), and the annual SCADDY Awards Exhibition, a juried show of top SCAD student finalists in 25 advertising-related categories, including brand identity, posters, advertising campaigns, animation, photography and illustration.

Free shuttles serving each gallery will be available beginning at 5:45 p.m. from 1600 Peachtree St., on the south side of SCAD’s main academic building. Participants may join the gallery hop at any one of the three locations. The event is free and open to the public, and includes light refreshments and complimentary onsite parking at the main campus.

(Photo courtesy of DeborahPoynton.com)

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If you’re behind the wheel this evening, be sure to avoid the area around Underground Atlanta. City police will block off some vehicular traffic so lots of people can look at a foam-and-fiberglass peach, listen to unknown country music stars, and get soused in a part of town where few people visit the other 364 days of the year.

From the city:

Streets that will be closed for the Peach Drop are:
• Alabama Street from Forsyth to Peachtree streets
• Wall Street from Central Avenue to Peachtree Street
• Marietta Street/Decatur Street from Spring Street to Central Avenue
• Walton Street from Forsyth to Peachtree streets
• Luckie Street/Auburn Avenue from Forsyth to Peachtree Center Avenue
• Williams Street from Forsyth to Peachtree streets
• Forsyth Street from M. L. King Jr. Drive to Walton Street
• Broad Street from Marietta to Peachtree streets
• Peachtree Street from M. L. King Jr. Drive to Ellis Street
• Park Place from J.W. Dobbs Avenue to Decatur Street
• Equitable Place from Auburn to Edgewood avenues
• Pryor Street from Decatur Street to M. L. King
• J.W. Dobbs Avenue from Peachtree Street to Peachtree Center Avenue
• Edgewood Avenue from Peachtree Street to Central Avenue

And:

Vehicular traffic will be allowed to flow on, but not enter the perimeter formed by:
• Central Avenue and Peachtree Center Avenue on the east;
• Spring Street, Walton Street and Forsyth Street on the west;
• M. L. King on the south; and Ellis Street and Carnegie Way on the north.

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As we’d reported in early August and the AJC repeated Sunday, City Hall has launched something of a crackdown on downtown panhandling. Last month, the city fired the first shot across the bow when police arrested almost 50 aggressive beggars, the first serious enforcement of the downtown “no panhandling zone” in three years.

And this Wednesday, Mayor Shirley Franklin will officially unveil the city’s new anti-panhandling strategy, of which increased police enforcement is only one aspect. Basically, the city – with support from Central Atlanta Progress, the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and the downtown business community – will launch a marketing campaign aimed at persuading people not to give money to beggars, but rather to social-service agencies that work with the homeless.

The ultimate goal, says Debi Starnes, a former Councilwoman and Franklin’s adviser on homeless issues, is to nudge those who are actually homeless into seeking treatment and help, while discouraging professional panhandlers.

If you’re interested, the mayor’s announcement will be in the City Hall atrium from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Let’s hope this marketing campaign works better than Brand Atlanta.

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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.

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From today’s AJC:

Irony rocks.

(Thanks to Mara Shalhoup — who’s done a “really great job being an asshole” — for the find.)

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