Fresh Loaf

The Atlanta Regional Commission yesterday said that metro Atlanta experienced its slowest year in growth since 1990. Between April 2008 and April 2009, only 24,700 people moved to the 10-county metro area. (That’s after years of averaging more than 77,000 new residents each year.)

Atlanta, which had seen an average of 7,400 residents flock to the city every year since 2000, added only 3,400 new residents.

“We’re definitely seeing the impact of the recession,” Mike Alexander, chief of ARC’s Research Division, said in a press release. “We experienced slower growth in all 10 counties and in the City of Atlanta. Even so, Atlanta continues to lead the region’s growth.”

There’s a little bit of good news, though, something that’ll at least put a smile on the faces of smart-growth aficionados and urban planners. The ARC last week voted to extend its award-winning Livable Centers Initiative program until 2012. Created in 1999, the program offers grants to local governments to plan and design walkable communities where once there had been just cars and congestion.

It was expected to run out of funds and go into limbo late last year, but the $3 million promise of cash means metro residents might have a better chance of seeing blasé suburbanscapes turned into enjoyable places once the economy recovers and development begins anew.

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U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., visited the Atlanta Press Club today and spoke about rail, water woes and the nation’s standstill economy. (He said it might take five years for the nation to recover.) Isakson also said the closing of the Hapeville Ford Plant might have hurt the region’s chances for the Atlanta-Lovejoy rail line.

Maria Saporta and the AJC’s Kristi Swartz wrote great summaries of his speech. Grayson Daughters also produced a video of Isakson’s talk.

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Earlier today, Gov. Sonny Perdue told reporters the soon-to-be-released April 2009 revenue figures were “not encouraging.”

He wasn’t fibbing. The revenue figures landed in our inboxes a few minutes ago. And to be honest, they’re rather terrible.

Net revenue collections of sales, personal income and corporate incomes taxes last month totaled $1.4 billion, down from $1.8 billion the same time last year. That’s a decrease of 20.6 percent. The year-to-date decrease in revenue collection is 9.6 percent.

According to figures released by the governor’s office, however, booze is still selling like it’s hot.

Perdue did note that last April’s figures were some of the highest the state had ever recorded. But man,  governor, you’ve made the right choice to veto the giant tax-cutting beast sitting on your desk. That thing might get you on Grover Norquist’s speed dial, but it’d just push the state deeper into the red.

If you’re a numbers lover, download the April 2009 revenue figures. (Warning: PDF)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Those nifty contrarians at Slate, God bless ‘em, have gone through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and made a fun and depressing animation of a heady few months of job gains followed by a blood-red pattern of job loss. The animation, which covers January 2007 to February 2009, provides some much-needed context to the headlines and numbers we’ve seen thrown about.

It’s interesting to watch how metropolitan regions went from blue to red. Not surprising, sure, as this is where the bulk of people live. But notice the areas where jobs grew. I heard an interesting rumor while reporting for the Green Guide that laid-off workers in Florida’s manufacturing industry were migrating north into south Georgia to look for jobs. You don’t see much of that in this animation, or you don’t see if they landed work, but it’d be interesting to also plug migration data into this map.

And look at that little blue dot along the Mid-Atlantic. That’s Washington, D.C., people! Or at least I think it is! Regardless, socialism! Government job programs! Big Government blah blah blah! (Click the screenshot to head to Slate’s site and watch the animation.)

(Screenshot from Slate)

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Number of cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing index: 20

Number of cities in the report that showed monthly and annual home price declines: 20

Amount, in percentage, home prices dropped nationally since January 2008, their largest decline: 19

Amount, in percentage, metro Atlanta home prices dropped since January 2008: 14.5

Amount, in percentage, that Phoenix home prices dropped: 35

Percentage of Atlanta’s population affected by property crimes and violent crime, respectively: 6.6, 1.6

Percentage of Phoenix’s population affected by property crimes and violent crime, respectively: 5.9, .74

Percentage increase in the average home price in Inman Park in early 2009 vs. early 2008, according to Trulia.com: 20

Percentage decrease in the average home price in Old Fourth Ward, over the same time period: 28

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Standard & Poor’s, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Trulia.com

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Whereas, things worth remembering need names. Children, pets, generations, boats. If we didn’t name them, then we might forget ‘em.

Whereas, when this current recession — or “current economic crisis” — ends, we better have some way of distinguishing it from the other occasional economic dips this country’s seen.

Whereas, I, Thomas Wheatley, who as an employee of Creative Loafing enjoy a wide variety of useless trinkets in my vicinity, have the desire to award the commenter who provides the best name for the “current economic crisis” with a scribbled-on Sany Group hat snatched from an “economic development” announcement. Or a National Rife Association bumper sticker currently plastered on my cubicle wall. (Or maybe tickets to something? I don’t know, I can’t promise anything. I’ll have to check with our marketing department.)

Therefore, let it be resolved that I am sick and tired of referring to the “current economic crisis” as such, and would like to know what to call this damn catastrophe in which the country finds itself.

Please leave your suggestions in the comments. You can also e-mail me. Be sure to let me know how I can get back in touch with you.

(Many more silly boat photos at Media-Post)

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NOT A SHOCKER: Last week

Late last fall, Sam Warren lost a client who’d fallen on hard times. That client was the state of Georgia.

The 52-year-old consultant and Powder Springs resident, who made his living writing operational manuals for corporations and government agencies, learned the state was instituting a “hard freeze” on outside contracts. Warren, who says never in his life has he left one job without another firmly in place, started making calls to drum up more business. Then he made some more calls.

Now, friends who told Warren in November that they’d try to help him secure work are looking for work themselves.

“It’s dry,” he says. “Dry and dead.”

Last week, Warren was among the estimated 19,000 people who packed into the Georgia World Congress Center to compete for what’s beginning to seem like an impossible find: a job.

Read the rest of this feature here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Among the 15 companies that U.S. News & World Report projects might not survive 2009: Six Flags, Loehmann’s and — gasp! — Krispy Kreme.

According to the story:

Krispy Kreme. (KKD; about 4,000 employees; stock down 50%). The donuts might be good, but Krispy Kreme overestimated Americans’ appetite – and that’s saying something. This chain overexpanded during the donut heyday of the 1990s – taking on a lot of debt – and now requires high volumes to meet expenses and interest payments. The company has cut costs and closed underperforming stores, but still hasn’t earned an operating profit in three years. And now that consumers are cutting back on everything, such improvements may fail to offset top-line declines, leading Krispy Kreme to seek some kind of relief from lenders over the next year.

Just one question. WTF is “the donut heyday of the 1990s”?

(Photo courtesy Twentieth Century Fox)

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1. GDOT, Amtrak throw wrench in Beltline plans (So as not to hog our top posts with Thomas Wheatley’s jealousy-inducing Beltline coverage, I’ll just tell you that this item and this one were also big hits.)

2. Internet conspiracy theorist predicts economic collapse next week (Only a few more days till financial Armageddon! Quick, stock up on bottled water, canned food, whiskey and Xanax!)

3. Apollo Holmes’ suicide a dead end in case of comatose trainer (The mystery of what happened to Darius Miller might have died with lone suspect.)

4. Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL: Rock me, sexy Jesus (Who doesn’t lust after Jesus? Um, on second thought, don’t answer that.)

5. Actor’s Express’ Mauritius takes a licking (It’s all about the second act.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Alejandro linked to it below in this morning’s Newsdome, but I’ll save you the guessing game! From the Wall Street Journal:

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Fourteen miles north of Atlanta is a suburb of wide boulevards, sleepy cul-de-sacs and bustling red-brick shopping centers. It also is the bank-failure capital of the U.S.

In just 13 months, three banks based within a few miles of each other went bust. Three more in other Atlanta suburbs were seized by regulators in 2008, as the region was haunted by overabundant home building, years of risky lending and one of the most relaxed regulatory environments in the U.S. for starting new banks, according to some experts.

…

Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas bristles at the city’s distinction as an epicenter of bad banking, noting that 22 other banks have at least one office here. Technically, Integrity doesn’t count as Alpharetta-based, Mr. Letchas says, since its headquarters were just outside the city limits in Johns Creek, Ga.

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>> Commuters are trapped after a Maryland water main breaks, turning River Road into, um, a river.

>> Guinea may or may not be in the throes of a military coup following the death of its totalitarian president.

>> Morris Brown College classroom building goes into foreclosure. Very unfortunate for the students — all 240 of them …

>> Economists predict that the recession will start to turn around mid-2009 and “will have legs” by 2010. Are these the same people that said unchecked capitalism and pushing the “ownership society” were good ideas?

>> Speaking of the good old ownership society, the latest trend in Atlanta housing is abandonment.

>> WTF? : Scientists have concluded babies born in winter are more likely to be unsuccessful in life and this is either the weather’s fault or the mother’s fault, it’s unclear. What is clear is these scientists have way too much money and time on their hands.

>> While everyone else gets laid off, Britney Spears’ dad gets a pay raise. Fathers, lock up your daughters — there’s money in it.

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