Fresh Loaf

The Little Five Points mural of Barack Obama has been defaced. Again.

Last time, it was a swastika. Now, a Hitler stache. Really, people?

(Photo credit: Joeff Davis)

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Everybody’s favorite punchline to all jokes consumerism and Democrats, Starbucks now has become a rallying point for the caffeine obsessed. A week after the ubiquitous coffee announced it would be not so ubiquitous, the Wall Street Journal reports today that there are campaigns to protest those closings. (Yet another reason to switch to decaf, but whatever.)

The Atlanta area is scheduled to have 10 shops close, according to a report in the AJC, which listed each of them. (There are 13 total scheduled closings in Georgia.) No word yet any local initiatives to battle the closings, which include such intown stops as the one at the Georgia Aquarium and at Peachtree Street at 17th Street (Midtown). I would have loved to see what kind of battle cry would have sounded if the one in Little Five Points, whose opening I heard was the source of much anti-chain yelping. Any takers?

But this is no joke to the baristas, as the WSJ article points out

The closures mean Starbucks will eliminate about 12,000 jobs, which comes out to 20 for every location it plans to shut. In addition to creating jobs and generating revenue, Starbucks outlets serve as key draws for other retailers, making the loss of one a blow to the surrounding area.

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What is it with liberals and bake sales, anyway? They’re fascinated by them. I’m thinking of the bumper sticker plastered all over Volvos back in the day that bemoaned, “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” A more recent example came from the 2006 campaign, “Bake Sales for Body Armor,” which “is dedicated to saving the lives of our soldiers by raising funds to buy body armor, medical supplies, and other items that promote their health and welfare.”

Laugh all you want. There’s gold in them cookies, as the presidential campaign for Barack Obama proved over the weekend with its “Hungry for Change” campaign that staged more than 700 bake sales all over the country — including several in Atlanta. The timing of the Saturday sales could not have come at a more ironic moment as they came on the heels of the presumptive Democratic nominee’s pledge-breaking announcement that he would opt out of accepting public financing for his campaign. Under those restrictions, Obama could have received no more than $85 million — peanuts these days, considering that Obama already has raised a couple hundred million, and some estimates see him reaching half a billion by the fall elections.

The wisdom and ethics of his decision depends on your perspective, I suppose. Critics say his decision shows him as a two-timing hypocrite in that he had earlier pledged to accept public financing along with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and that he has campaigned as a reformer. Supporters say that, considering his unprecedented success at raising money at the grass-roots level — mostly on the Internet — Obama has redefined the entire concept of the term “public financing.”

Which brings us back to the bake sales, which could be found all over the Atlanta area on Saturday. (There was no confirmation about whether all the goodies were baked by left hands only.) I stopped by two of them in vastly contrasting neighborhoods: Little Five Points and Southwest Atlanta. The first one was hosted by Lexa King, an L5P resident of nearly a quarter century and Realtor. Like others, King learned of the bake sales through an email from MoveOn.org. (more…)

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No, the burger behemoth isn’t opening a store in the alt-hippie neighborhood. But a crew was filming a commercial in the parking lot in front of Junkman’s Daughter this morning.

So the ultimate fast-food chain comes to L5P in search of scenery that it can use to brand itself as authentic, i.e. non-chain-ish. Isn’t that kind of like self-hatred?

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Someone spray-painted a swastika and X’s last night over this graffiti portrait of Barack Obama in Little Five Points.

Camron Wiltshire and two other artists had been working last week on the piece at the corner of Colquitt and Euclid avenues. Sir2 painted another Obama portrait, and Michi had scripted out the old Sam Cooke lyric: “A long time coming but a change gonna come.”

Wiltshire, who happens to be a former CL Lust List winner, came by today to put the finishing touches on his portrait — and discovered the swastika. Sir2’s portrait also was defaced with a swastika.

“Nothing stops love,” Wiltshire said. “The person who did it is forgiven. And if he’d like to come talk to me, I am open to it. And I hope as a collective humanity can evolve and learn to love each other.”

Note: Some of the comments in the thread below have been removed. Although we do not moderate comments before they are published, we obviously reserve the right to remove any that don’t adhere to our comment policy.

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Overheard this morning in Aurora Coffee, Little Five Points: One lean guy wearing light, somewhat worn clothes and work boots passes my table in the back to the one just behind me. Another lean guy wearing light, somewhat worn clothes, a black jean jacket, and baseball cap and work boots is sitting there, charging his phone.

“Hey, man, are you traveling?”

“No, I’ve been here for a while.”

“I just got to town, man, and I’m trying to figure out where everything is.”

“Well, I don’t really live here anymore. I spend most of the year up in Alaska.”

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“There’s not really anything going on in Atlanta anymore. You might want to head over to Athens.”

“Athens? Where’s that?”

“It’s this little town about 45 minutes away. They got more of a punk scene — a lot more stuff going on. You just head on down to DeKalb Avenue and catch the CSX.”

“DeKalb Avenue, where’s that?”

“Just go out of here and take a right. And when you get to the tracks, there’ll be two MARTA tracks and then there’s a CSX track. Just go left, and follow it down to where it forks up there, and the one that goes left — that’ll take you to Athens.”

“Oh, hey, man, thanks a lot, man. That’s great.”

After the guy asking the questions got out of the bathroom, they conversed more. The guy asking the questions was from New Hampshire. The other guy had been charging his phone. He warned the questioner to keep an eye out for people who’d been working on the lines.

This is a world I did not know about before.

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TERRY WILLIAMS: Gunned down in front of Little Five Points home in May

(photo by Kevin Green)

After 47-year-old Terry Williams was shot in the head and killed in front of his Little Five Points home in May during what police called an attempted armed robbery, neighborhood residents and business owners collected money for reward and distributed a sketch of the suspect to help Atlanta police find his killer.

Now some of those neighbors worry his accused killer could be back on the streets at any moment.

On Dec. 17, Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Bedford Jackson set bail in the case at $92,500. Charged with felony murder, 19-year-old Cori Williams (no relation to the victim), might need as little as $9,250 to get out of jail pending trial.

Little Five Points residents are outraged and frightened.

“People don’t expect a person charged with felony murder to be granted a bond,” said Dr. Richard Shapiro, a friend and neighbor of the victim. “The people I’ve spoken to are afraid. The possibility of someone capable of that level of crime being back on the streets puts a sense of fear in the community.”

Fulton County District Attorney calls the judge’s decision “a disgrace.”

“Why a judge would allow a defendant who murders a citizen by shooting him in the face while attempting to rob him to be released from jail defies reason and spits in the face of justice,” Howard said in a written statement.

Asked if it’s common to grant bond to defendants accused of murder, Howard replied:

Unfortunately, this is not the only Fulton County case in which a murder suspect has been freed on bond. Over our objections, many of these cases are handled in that fashion. Our statistics show about 40 percent of our murder defendants are released on bond. And right now, there are 17 bond forfeitures — murder defendants who failed to show up for trial in our jurisdiction.

In my view, these defendants present a real danger to other victims, witnesses and the community at large. And for those reasons, I strongly believe they should be incarcerated until their cases go to trial.

No one in Judge Jackson’s office was available for comment.

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The Atlanta Police Department just issued a press release stating that an arrest was made last night in the May 22 murder of Terry Williams.

The suspect is described as a 19-year-old male. Atlanta police had released a sketch of the suspect on May 30. His name has not been released.

Williams, a beloved resident of the neighborhood and a former bartender at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, was walking from the bar to his Seminole Avenue apartment at around 12:30 a.m. when he was shot in the head during an attempted mugging.

Williams died from his injuries a week later.

UPDATE: The suspect was identified early Saturday as Cori Williams. A search of Fulton jail records shows that he was arrested once before by Atlanta Police, for theft by receiving stolen property in 2005.

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The Atlanta Police Department is seeking help from the public in its investigation into the murder of Terry Williams, a Little Five Points resident who was shot during a mugging in front of his Seminole Avenue apartment.

Williams, who was in his late 30s, was shot once in the head at 12:30 a.m. on May 22 and died on May 29.

On May 30, police released the above sketch and the following description of the suspect:

This individual is a black male in his early 30’s, with shoulder length twists or dread locks in his hair. He is about 6’0 to 6 in height and between 160 to 170 lbs. (slim build). He also has a medium complexion with a slight mustache.

If you have any information on this case, please contact the Atlanta Police Homicide Unit. 404-853-4235.

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At 12:30 a.m. on May 22, Terry Williams was shot once in the head, practically in front of his Seminole Avenue apartment, as he was walking home from the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club. The gunman had demanded cash, according to an Atlanta Police report, and Williams — a beloved resident of Little Five and a regular (and former bartender) at the EAYC — hardly had a chance to react before he was downed by a bullet.

Shortly before 6 p.m. on May 29, CL got an email from Williams’ friend and neighbor, Kevin Green, stating, “Terry died a few minutes ago.”

“Everybody’s in a state of shock,” Green had said a few hours before Terry’s death. “He is one of the smartest, funniest, kindest people I’ve ever met. When you spend time with him, a lot of the time you wake up the next morning with a sore stomach from laughing so hard.

“People say this all the time when this happens to someone, but it’s the truth.”

The word Green and others have invoked when describing the incident is “senseless.”

As of the afternoon of May 29, Atlanta Police did not yet have a suspect.

“I think the neighborhood is shocked and angry that something like this could happen,” says Green, who describes Williams as a sculptor, screenwriter and master storyteller. “I was with him on Sunday, [May 20], and he was saying how much he loved living in the neighborhood.”

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Terry Williams made the walk from the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club to his apartment a few blocks away on Seminole Avenue countless times. He was a regular at the popular blue-collar bar, and a former bartender there.

Shortly after midnight on May 22, Williams and an out-of-town guest left the bar to grab a six-pack at the gas station across the street, in the heart of Little Five Points, and head to Williams’ home, according to EAYC bartender Gino Hallidy. They were almost there when a man stopped to ask them for a light. Williams’ guest gave the man a lighter, and the man demanded cash, according to an Atlanta Police report. Before either Williams or his friend were able to comply, the man shot Williams once in the head.

Williams, who is in his late 30s, is listed in serious condition at Grady Memorial Hospital, according to Atlanta Police public affairs officer James Polite. Polite tells CL they do not yet have a suspect in the shooting.

The quirky, close-knit and typically tolerant Little Five Points neighborhood has been spared any high-profile crimes since 2002, when three street kids were charged with a hate crime for the savage, daytime beating of Idris Golden and his brother, Che. The attackers yelled racial slurs at the Goldens, who are black, while attacking them, witnesses said. The three later pleaded guilty.

Neighborhood activist Don Bender says he doesn’t believe the recent shooting indicates a trend: “It certainly is the most extreme thing that’s happened here in many years.”

Bender says the Little Five Points Community Association will be taking up donations in order to offer a reward for info on the shooter. (CL will update this blog as more info about both the reward and the shooter becomes available.)

In recent months, Hallidy hadn’t heard of much crime in the neighborhood, either.

But he says that from September 2006 to February 2007, at least a half dozen EAYC patrons and local employees, himself included, had been mugged in Little Five. EAYC employees had grown concerned enough to put up fliers in the bar and on the street warning about those attacks. “From where I’m standing now,” Hallidy told CL by phone, standing in front of the bar, “I can see four of them.”

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