Fresh Loaf

Last week, City Council voted to override Mayor Shirley Franklin’s decision to shutter Atlanta’s oldest fire station as part of a round of budget cuts. Despite council’s vote to fund the station, the decision to re-open it rests with the mayor — and herroner ain’t budging.

“Why would the mayor just let this money sit in an account in order to just win an argument with the City Council? There is no good reason other than to impose her will.”

— Jim Daws, head of the city’s firefighters’ union, to the AJC

“This is certainly a different Council than the one I’ve been serving on during this administration or the previous administration. People have been more independent in their thinking — and not necessarily in agreement with the administration. This is a new day.”

— Councilmember Felicia More, to CL

“The hubbub over Fire Station No. 7 and the needless confrontation with Franklin only add to the evidence that this council lacks credibility in dealing with the city’s significant financial problems.”

— Sept. 5 AJC editorial

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Despite warnings of decreased public services and reassurances that its shuttering wouldn’t affect response times, the Atlanta City Council today voted 11-3 to override Mayor Shirley Franklin’s veto of their plan to re-open Fire Station No. 7 in Southwest Atlanta.

The council’s plan involves sluicing $1.12 million from various municipal departments to pay for the historic station’s operating and maintenance costs.

The legislation now heads back to the mayor’s desk, where she will douse it in gasoline and set it ablaze.

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In a few hours, the latest round of head-butting between the Atlanta City Council and Mayor Shirley Franklin will commence. This time, the issue is the recently shuttered Fire Station #7, which the mayor ordered closed in July as part of $21.6 million in city budget cuts. Located on Whitehall Street just south of the I-20 overpass, #7 had been the city’s oldest fire station still in service.

Councilman Ceasar Mitchell has proposed legislation to reopen #7 by skimming the $1.12 million in needed operating funds from a number of other sources, such as the annual budgets for consulting services, travel and office supplies. which held the distinction of being Atlanta’s oldest station still in service, (more…)

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— Griftdrift returns from a snorkeling adventure in the Gulf of Mexico to weigh in with a spot-on analysis of Secretary of State Karen Handel’s decision to remove PSC Commission candidate Jim Powell from the ballot, and a judge’s subsequent decision to put him back on the ballot.

—Lori posts a pictorial tribute to Fire Station No. 7, which was closed yesterday due to the city’s budget crisis, on Mingaling. There’s nothing there about Shirley Franklin going “Philadelphia” on the protesters who don’t want to lose their fire station — and almost needing her own fire put out — but there’s some pretty pictures.

— Over at Jason Pye’s blog, he passes along info that Bob Barr, former CL columnist and now presidential candidate, has opened up an on-line store where you can pick up campaign t-shirts and hats. They’re spiffy.

— In a campaign of a different sort, there’s a long back and forth on ATLmalcontent regarding a fellow blogger’s tome on the requirements for a male to be a feminist ally. Which is something we should all aspire towards, no?

— A new trend in Atlanta television news is called “backpacking.” No camping involved. Just news reporters doubling as camerapersons. Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire explains how WXIA is trying to get a bigger bang for the buck. And essentially telling viewers: Expect less.

— Over at the Wren’s Nest, someone has discovered that the family of Joel Chandler Harris sued Coca-Cola for copyright infringement in 1932. Br’er Rabbit didn’t win because Br’er Coca-Cola out-foxed him.

— I’m still trying to figure this one out, but the ladies at Pecanne Log seem to have this inexplicable crush on our own Thomas Wheatley, to the point they appear to gush over him with every post. Today, there’s no Thomas-gushing going on, but there is a nice sigh of relief that the Crum and Forster building has been saved from the clutches of demolition by those ramblin’ wrecks over at Georgia Tech.

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