Fresh Loaf

Twice this week, the AJC has published flattering stories about Grant Park residents who annoy the crap out of their neighbors with their eco-bling.

Yesterday, it was “Historic with a modern twist,” a feature on Curt and Christine Mann. They’re the couple who erected a 45-feet-tall wind power turbine in their yard, despite objections by neighbors, studies showing Atlanta is not suitable for wind energy production, and the advice of the turbine manufacturer’s own website.

Today, Atlanta’s alternative daily published a feature about Steve Carr headlined “Grant Park ‘rain man’ lives off his own water supply.”

The story describes Carr, who lives at the end of Mercer Street in Grant Park, as a quirky, self-sufficient pack rat who cleverly collects and filters his own water and keeps recyclables out of city landfills.

I spent several hours meeting with and speaking to Carr last year while writing a feature about his neighbors’ effort to get him to stop using Mercer Street to store his growing piles of junk.

In my opinion, the AJC story does not accurately depict the effect Carr’s lifestyle has on his neighbors. And though the story mentions how Carr’s habits annoy his neighbors, the story depicts a he-said/she-said scenario instead of seriously examining how Carr’s habits may conflict with city laws and codes.

For example, here’s a photo CL photographer Joeff Davis took last year of Carr’s neighbors, the Carlock family. The Carlocks are standing on the street in front of Carr’s property:

The junk pile you see behind them is on Mercer Street in Grant Park. Carr’s storage of crap on a public street is no more legal than me dumping old furniture and garbage bags in front of your house.

Joeff’s photo shows just a fraction of Carr’s pile.

Here’s a complete view, from space (click to enlarge):

To understand the scale of Carr’s junk pile, compare it to the size of some of the cars visible on the streets in the photo. The AJC story refers to this mountain of industrial junk as a “collection.”

According to Councilwoman Carla Smith, who I interviewed last year, Carr defies city codes regulating what he can store on his residential lot by simply paying the meager fines levied against him.

As for the water conservation the AJC story notes with apparent approval — when I met Carr on his property last year, he showed me a hula-hoop-sized steel ring marking a spot on his property where he says none of his neighbors can see him when he urinates on the ground.

Is turning Atlanta into a cesspool really the way we want to conserve water?

First the Mann’s and their turbine that doesn’t spin. Now Steve Carr and the water-saving outhouse/junkyard.

What’s next, AJC? A feature on someone who saves on his heating bill by burning tires in his front yard?

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Last Friday, Atlanta’s Board of Zoning Adjustment approved Curt and Christine Mann’s plan to erect a 45-foot power-generating wind turbine in the yard of their Grant Park home. Many of the Manns’ neighbors oppose the city’s decision.

The way the AJC presents the turbine controversy, you’d think that the neighborhood dispute is a battle between an ecology-minded family and a group of grumpy, hypocritical NIMBYs.

Tit:

The Manns say they’re simply committed to relying less on fossil fuels in order to help curb global warming.

Tat:

In 2000, three-quarters of the voters in the precincts that include Grant Park voted for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore over George Bush. Gore went on to star in “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about global warming that won an Academy Award this year.

But the Manns’ tower would be ineffective, nothing more than a giant garden ornament, according to opponents.

Absent from the story is an attempt to find out if either side has a better argument.

Fact #1: Southwest Windpower, the company that manufactured the Manns’ turbine, says their residential wind turbine requires “at least 10 MPH average wind speed (best results at 12 MPH or more)”.

Fact #2: According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s wind-power maps and charts (here, here and here), Atlanta’s average wind speed is below 10 mph.

Simply put, there’s not enough wind in Atlanta to power a residential wind turbine.

The Manns may be within their legal rights to erect one, but their wind turbine makes as much eco-sense as building a hydroelectric dam across Peachtree Creek.

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