Fresh Loaf

Dan and Alyssa Kopp’s surveillance video of their Grant Park home being robbed last fall was such a hit they’ve made a sequel.

If you were among the more than 37,000 people who watched the first video on YouTube, you’ll recall that it shows three perps checking out the house, kicking in a side door and carrying out a mammoth flat-screen TV. They were in the house less than 30 seconds.

Aided by tips from video-viewers, police raided a house in nearby East Lake a few days later, nabbing six suspects and retrieving eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptops and several digital cameras.

Well, apparently someone didn’t get the memo that the Kopp home is rigged with cameras. Alyssa just alerted me that their house was broken into again this past Friday. This time it was four suspects, but the MO was exactly the same: ring the doorbell, kick in a door and then, in and out in less than a minute.

And, as you’ve no doubt guessed, the robbers were again captured on tape (or, more likely, hard drive). Judging from the video below, it looks as if the Kopps have installed even more cameras than they had last year. Also, this time, no flat-screen.

It’s a pisser to be robbed twice in less than a year, but Alyssa is optimistic:

Since we were so successful in catching them last time, we are asking for the media’s assistance again in getting these pictures and the video circulated far and wide in the hopes that we’ll have the same luck.

I think we can help you out there.

(more…)

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Who is Jesse Spikes, you ask? Well, here’s your chance to find out.

Spikes is a former Rhodes Scholar and a senior partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge, one of the city’s largest law firms. He’s also running for mayor, having announced his candidacy a little more than a year ago, just before City Council President Lisa Borders — temporarily — dropped out.

Over the past year, I can’t say that Spikes has made many waves in the mayor’s race, but I’d comfortably rank him first among second-tier candidates. At the end of the last disclosure period, he had about $125,000 in his campaign war chest — far short of the amounts being raised and spent by the three first-tier candidates: Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed. In fact, in the first quarter of 2009, Reed raised more in a week than Spikes raised in three months. The next round of disclosures should be out in early July.

Anyway, if you like underdogs or are simply not satisfied with the folks leading the field, you can check out Spikes this Saturday at his official campaign kick-off. The event begins at 11 a.m. in front of the large pavilion on the west side of Grant Park near the entrance on Boulevard. The speechifying is scheduled to begin around noon. You can study up on Spikes beforehand at his campaign website.

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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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Amir Farokhi kicked off his campaign for Atlanta City Council’s Post 2 At-large seat on Tuesday with a daylong tour of six neighborhoods. From sunrise to sunset, the Atlanta attorney traveled by MARTA to meet with residents from West End to Buckhead and Candler Park to Midtown.

The tour culminated at 7 p.m. in Grant Park at the Standard, the Memorial Drive restaurant where bartender John Henderson was killed during a botched early-morning robbery on January 7.

Standing in a room surrounded by such supporters as political gadfly Tom Houck and state Rep. Margaret Kaiser, D-Atlanta, the 31-year-old Farokhi outlined a platform of public safety, transparency and transportation.

“I believe you’re here because you care about this city,” he told the crowd. “That it could be a remarkable, global city, 24 hours a day. You want it run responsibly. You want a safe city. And this November we have the opportunity to really change.”

Well wishers were pining to shake Farokhi’s hand, so time to chat with him was limited. After the jump, a quick rundown on parts of his platform, many of which are explained in-depth on his website’s “issues” page. Yes, we asked him about gambling at Underground Atlanta.

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Lisa Sadri at Hospice Atlanta

In October 2007, Lisa Sadri learned her breast cancer had returned and spread to her lungs, liver and back. A former executive recruiter, Sadri’s receiving treatment at Hospice Atlanta before she returns to her native Florida to be near her sister and parents – both of whom are cancer survivors. Her illness is terminal.

It was scary when my treatment team started talking to me about moving into hospice. If I were to get better, I don’t think hospice is the right thing for me. I can’t walk from here to the bathroom without oxygen right now. I can’t take a shower without help. But this isn’t like a nursing home. It’s bright. You’re not treated like you’re about to be put in the ground. These people are angels. This place has given me a lot of dignity.

[My mindset] is very different than it would’ve been a year and a half ago, when my life and my success was measured on my job, where I lived, what car I drove. And it’s none of that anymore. The measure of my success now is my relationships.

I’ve got an excellent network of friends here. I worked for a phenomenal company that I still feel a part of. But I’m probably the saddest with leaving my son and my boyfriend here. They’ll be coming down to visit.

I’ve had some really good days. I’ve had someone spending every night with me. We laugh and carry on as much as we can. Sense of humor is huge and I’m around a lot of people who have big ones. And we have a great time with it. Just not talking around it, even. There’s no more denial.

(more…)

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Late Saturday night, a Grant Park couple’s home burned for 25 minutes before firefighting crews arrived. Officials are probing why it took the City of Atlanta 911 call center so long to relay the message to fire crews. A computer malfunction has hindered the department’s ability to determine the exact time the 911 call was received.

Below is a video of the fire posted on YouTube by the couple’s neighbor.

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Jamarcus Usher, on his MySpace page

Late Wednesday night, two bar patrons leaving East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern were approached by 29-year-old Jamarcus Usher. Fearing that Usher was a threat, one of the bar patrons knocked him to the ground back a few feet with the door of his pickup truck, then shot and killed him after Usher raised a weapon.

Eerily, Usher’s MySpace page lists his occupation as “staying alive.”

Another bit of strangeness: Usher died in almost the exact spot where, eight years ago, another robbery suspect was shot and killed.

It’s not yet clear if this week’s shooting has anything to do with the climate of fear that has descended on Atlanta. Generally speaking, people are spooked following a recent spate of violent crime, including the shooting death of John Henderson. Henderson, a bartender at the Standard in nearby Grant Park, was killed Jan. 7 by armed robbers who broke into the Memorial Drive restaurant.

It seems to me that Atlanta — and East Atlanta Village in particular — has been through this before.

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The AJC reports today that Atlanta police have corrected numerous details that were released in the hours after John Henderson, a bartender at the Standard Food and Spirits, was killed Jan. 7.

The most “startling” correction about Henderson’s death? According to the AJC, “His killers might not have meant to kill him.”

Nor was he killed execution-style, as the Atlanta Police Department initially claimed. In fact, the entire narrative of the incident inside the popular Memorial Drive bar and restaurant was way off.

The story goes on to say:

After robbing the bartenders of the business’s money, the [four or five] robbers closed the office door and fired several shots through the door before they left.

[Atlanta homicide detective Anthony] Gentile would not confirm that one of warning shots was the fatal bullet to Henderson’s head — he was shot three times, not four as originally reported by police — but the detective acknowledged that Henderson’s death could have been unintentional.

There are also several details that have been erroneously reported by police, Gentile acknowledged:

• The female bartender never hid in a cabinet for safety.

• One of the robbers never told the others not to shoot the woman.

• The robbers never told the bartenders to lie face-down on the floor.

• The wounds to Henderson did not come while one of the robbers stood over him, shooting him once in each leg and twice in the head.

Gentile said he doesn’t have a good explanation for the misinformation that was given to the media by the Atlanta Police Department, aside from saying that much information was being tossed around in the initial hours after the killing.

Though the new details might make the crime seem slightly less vicious, the gunmen wouldn’t be less culpable — even if they didn’t mean to kill Henderson. Under Georgia law, if a person is killed while a suspect is committing a felony (armed robbery, for example), that’s “felony murder.” The charge carries a mandatory life sentence.

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Rubi Cuautle, at a vigil for John Henderson

Tears, laughs, prayers, cigarettes and calls for organizing against crime were the orders of business this morning at a vigil in front of the Standard Food & Spirits — where, one day earlier, 27-year-old bartender John Henderson was murdered during an armed robbery.

Police estimated that more than 200 people, including Henderson’s friends and supporters, gathered to celebrate his life and discuss the tragedy at the popular bar and restaurant on Memorial Drive, near historic Oakland Cemetery in north Grant Park. Community residents circulated sign-up sheets and fliers for community action groups. Local filmmaker Kyle Keyser — himself a victim of a crime eerily similar to the one that took Henderson’s life — handed out a flier for a new group he’s forming, called Atlantans Together Against Crime and Cutbacks. Keyser said he decided to form the group last night, after hearing about Henderson’s death.

According to the AJC, Henderson and a female bartender were closing up the Standard at about 4 a.m., when four armed men threw a brick through the glass door and ordered them into the bar’s office. Henderson was shot four times execution-style — twice in the head and once in each leg. He later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Brandon Barr, a regular at the Standard, stared off into space under the Standard sign as he recalled his memories of Henderson. “He was a great guy,” Barr said, “and I came here to pay my respects.” Rubi Cuautle choked back tears and called for a boycott “of establishments that do not provide adequate security for their employees.” Kelly Dugan held a candle as she accepted deep hugs from well-wishers. “John was one of my really good friends,” she said.

More photos from the vigil at our Sideshow Atlanta Blog

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Management and employees of Standard Food and Spirits have established a memorial fund for John Henderson, the 27-year-old bartender who was murdered at the restaurant after a robbery early Wednesday morning.

“We are offering what help we can financially and emotionally to his family,” Chris Johnson, owner and general manager of Standard Food and Spirits, said in a press release from the city. “John was very outgoing and very lively and supportive. Our hearts go out to his parents, extended family and his many friends. It’s unfortunate that someone would take another life in such a senseless crime.”

Tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., Southeast Atlanta residents will hold a vigil for Henderson at The Standard. Management and staff are also planning a memorial service at the restaurant in the near future.

To contribute funds to the John Henderson Memorial Fund, visit the Grant Park Neighborhood Association website and follow the link to make a donation via credit card. Checks and money orders, noted as “John Henderson Memorial Fund,” can be mailed to the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, PO Box 89235, Atlanta, GA 30312.

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Dec. 24, 2008, 9:45 a.m. at Grant Park

On my way to work, I spotted this guy with a full, white beard, dressed in white warm-ups jogging up Atlanta Avenue carrying a Confederate battle flag. His name is Alan Keck and he lives in Grant Park, although he’s not a native Atlantan. A few years ago, he told me, he got interested in Southern history and realized that the Confederacy had gotten a raw deal in the Civil War. Recently, he said, he’d gotten up the courage to jog with the flag and has even carried it in the Peachtree Road Race.

(Photo by Scott Henry)

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After months of behind-the-scenes coordination, the Atlanta Regional Commission can finally confirm celebrated New Urbanist Andres Duany’s project for metro Atlanta.

In early February, Duany and a team of town planners from his Duany Plater-Zyberk firm will hold a nine-day series of charrettes to design five sites in the metro region aimed at retrofitting communities — a proactive move to accommodate the growing population of aging metro Atlantans.

If that sounds like a ho-hum project for a town planner commonly called the “father of New Urbanism,” think more long-term. By 2030, according to the commission, one out of five people living in metro Atlanta will be over the age of 55. And the auto-dependent, subdivision existence that is metro Atlanta doesn’t bode well for those residents in terms of housing, transportation and quality of life.

Members of Duany’s team will set up shop in the commission’s downtown headquarters, hear input from stakeholders, and assemble and present its preliminary vision for five chosen sites — Toco Hills in DeKalb County, the Grant Park area along the Beltline, Mableton, Fayetteville and Conyers. Think of the process as Jackson Pollock meets urban planning.

Funding for the charrettes is provided by the American Association of Retired Persons, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Kathryn Lawler, the commission’s project manager, says the initiative is a first and could have national implications for how sprawl-ravaged regions can adapt to a population that’s living longer — and deserving of the right to move about the world like its younger counterparts.

(Photo courtesy of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company)

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Burglars, beware. Big Brother — or at least a fancy surveillance system — is watching.

Atlantans are fighting back against break-ins by publicizing videos of the culprits. The latest: A brief snippet of a guy who attempted to break into an Adair Park home using two shovels. The man is believed to be responsible for a dozen burglaries in the neighborhood.

Last month, homeowners in Grant Park and East Atlanta caught their break-ins on camera. Two days after the videos went viral, six suspects believed to be involved in at least one of the burglaries were arrested — and police recovered eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras.

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The Internets can be an effective crime-fighting tool for those who can’t wait for John Walsh to call.

On Monday, Dan and Alyssa Kopp of Grant Park were victims of a break-in that cost them their flat-screen TV, a laptop and a digital camera. However, their home security camera had caught the entire burglary on video, showing the three thieves and their SUV in high definition.

They posted the video to YouTube on Tuesday, alerted some friends and within a few hours they’d received calls from us, the AJC and several TV news crews. By 5 p.m., the video of the smash-and-grab burglary had been watched by more than 5,000 people, some of whom posted tips.

On Thursday, according to the AJC, police acting on one such tip raided a house in South DeKalb, where they found eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras. Six suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested.

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Earlier today, a friend sent me a YouTube link that scared the crap outa me. In the 90-second video, an SUV pulls up to a house, three guys come onto the back porch, peer through the windows, and then one of them kicks in the door. A few seconds later, they carry a large flat-screen TV out to the SUV and take off.

The reason I had such a strong reaction to the video is because it was taken by surveillance camera at a house in Grant Park a few blocks from mine. I’ve been hearing about these smash-and-grab robberies around the neighborhood for months now, but it’s unnerving to actually watch one in action.

Imagine, then, how unnerving the event was for Dan and Alyssa Kopp, the owners of the burglarized home.

Alyssa says the couple decided to install the video surveillance system when their house was unoccupied during a lengthy renovation earlier this year. Dan, a computer engineer, pulled the burglary footage off a hard drive and edited it down from four minutes.

The couple posted the video online and sent it to friends. As of late afternoon, it had been seen by nearly 2,000 YouTube visitors. So far, the Kopps have been contacted by us, the AJC and several local TV stations. Such is the power of the internets.

Alyssa has been pleasantly surprised by the speed of the response. Even as we talked on the phone, friends were sending her messages about a similar burglary video from East Atlanta, also on YouTube. Website visitors have posted comments speculating on the identity of the thieves.

The crime occurred around 10 a.m. Monday. The burglars were in the house for less than 30 seconds. In addition to the TV, they stole a laptop and a digital camera, Alyssa says. The police dusted for prints and took a report, but Alyssa sounds more optimistic about leads coming out of the video posting.

“I’d rather not get our stuff back, and have them catch these guys so they stop terrorizing the neighborhood,” she says.

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1) Visit the 17th Street Art Fair for its final day at Atlantic Station.

2) In the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance, Linda Villarosa discusses her new novel, Passing for Black, at Charis Circle.

3) Brian Henson, co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company, presents his oeuvre, The Future of Digital Puppetry, at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

4) Stop by Eyedrum for the Gimme Shelter Benefit for the Madhousers, builders of shelter for the homeless.

5) Relive history and take the Grant Park Tour of Homes.

(Image by Dagmar Bruehmueller)

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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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As promised, the Beltline continues ahead. Planners for the southeast quadrant — the segment of the massive project that curves south of I-20 and encompasses Grant Park — will unveil the draft park master plan for Boulevard Crossing on Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., at the Animal Rescue Center at Zoo Atlanta. The 21-acre park is one of several new greenspaces created by the Beltline.

Stakeholders who attended a recent study group said they favored an urban confluence concept — one that would blend aspects of the city with a traditional park idea. You’d see an amphitheater with a great lawn a la Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

To view the plan, click here. Then click on “Draft Park Master Plan” under the “Boulevard Crossing Master Plan” category. A more detailed map will be shown at the Feb. 21 open house. Maps will also be on display at East Atlanta and Georgia Hill libraries after the presentation.

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Beltline planners presented the latest vision for the Southeast Study Area of the public works project to the public last night. The area in question — essentially the lower-right corner between I-20 and Hill Street — is home to Grant Park and ripe with pockets for development. As coffee-sipping residents and stakeholders milled past the easel-supported maps in Zoo Atlanta’s ARC Building, planners and study-area consultants were nearby to hand out Post-it notes for comments and to answer questions.

People in attendance said they are optimistic about the Beltline, and were more than willing to dole out their input, ranging from everything to parking for a proposed amphitheater to the location of a maintenance facility for whatever transit mode planners decide to implement. The vagaries of pro/con arguments about the project itself have given way to more specific examples of what people want to see. Comments posted on the maps and charts focused more on the details — “Trolley YES! Heavy-rail NO!!!” read one comment card — rather than generic suggestions.

The working draft of the Southeast Study Area now places several activity hubs — including retail and employment centers — near the proposed transit line. Others would be located closer to Chosewood Park and Englewood Manor. The business community has already shown a great interest in the area surrounding Boulevard Crossing Park, a 21-acre chunk of greenspace south of Grant Park that will be one of several new parks created because of the Beltline.

Planners presented stakeholders with three different concepts for the greenspace, and said people have been leaning in favor of a plan that balances urban and nature elements — an amphitheater and a great lawn reminiscent of Central Park’s Sheep Meadow, for example — more than the other visions that focus on active and passive recreation, respectively.

Also on hand: representatives from Trees Atlanta, a self-explanatory nonprofit spearheading a “museum of trees” along the project, and officials from Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board. James Alexander of the board said it is now beginning the discussion phase of determining how the $42 million guaranteed over the project’s first five years would be used to create affordable housing.

When queried about which transportation features posed the biggest challenge to the Southeast Study Area, John Funny, a transportation consultant working on the project, said it was the resident response to the idea of a tunnel. The proposed layout includes only one at-grade — or street-level — crossing, and the rest of the proposed transit would pass through a tunnel constructed to accommodate the surrounding trails and park space. Residents, Funny said, were concerned about possible crime and vandalism that tunnel may attract. Planners think the development — both existing and new — and the number of people around the area would deter crime.

Funny — which is a great name — raised another question currently being debated by the city and the Georgia Department of Transportation: Just what is Boulevard? It’s an interesting give-to-get issue. The city says Boulevard is a collector street, meaning that it accepts traffic from major roads and then disperses it to side streets. DOT says it’s a “minor arterial.” That classification means certain speeds have to be established to keep traffic moving through the area. If residents want the street to have more traffic lights or other features aimed at slowing motorists down, Boulevard must be classified as a “collector.” But in doing such, it loses the eligibility for federal funds that only a “minor arterial” can claim.

A roundabout — a large, multilane traffic circle that helps handle flow and traffic speed — is proposed for Englewood and Boulevard. Also being discussed are chicanes — strips of grass or blockers jutting out into the road — but only along side streets.

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It’s a damn shame Curt and Christine Mann, the Grant Park couple who erected a 45-foot-tall wind turbine on their property, don’t live in eco- and rebate-friendly San Francisco — they’d be getting paid for all this. But we’re not San Francisco, and outraged neighbors of the Manns filed a suit this week in Fulton County Superior Court requesting the city pull the couple’s building permit and require them to file for a certificate of appropriateness with the Atlanta Urban Design Commission — who, with such a cool-sounding name, you wish would have an awesome website. But alas, it doesn’t.

It’s been said once before on this blog, but I’ll echo the statement because it is worth repeating. I applaud and encourage any effort by anyone out there to invest in renewable energy, recycle or make better choices not just for the environment, but for their fellow residents. It’s smart, and you might save some cash. But a huge turbine in an area that doesn’t even receive enough wind needed to eke out the benefits? Commendable for the awareness, but fruitless in the end.

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Cost of Skystream 3.7 power-generating wind turbine atop a 45-foot tower installed by Mann family in Grant Park: $15,000

Average wind speed Skystream 3.7 turbine requires for “best results,” according to manufacturer: 12 mph

Average wind speed in Atlanta, according to U.S. Department of Energy wind maps: 0-9.8 mph

Size of “unobstructed” property Skystream 3.7 requires to work, according to manufacturer: 0.5 acre

Size of Grant Park neighborhood residential lot on which Skystream 3.7 was erected: 0.1618 acre

Amount of electricity Skystream 3.7 could produce on an ideal site in Atlanta: 0.15 kilowatts per hour

Amount of electricity saved by replacing two 100 watt light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs: 0.15 kilowatts per hour

Cost of 23 watt Mini Twist Compact Fluorescent Bulb at Lowe’s closest to Grant Park: $7.27.

Sources: AJC, Southwest Windpower, Fulton Board Of Assessors, U.S. Department of Energy, TreesYesTowersNo.org, Lowe’s

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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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