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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The AP’s Russ Bynum writes an excellent piece that helps explain why Georgia has found itself at the tippity top of a terrible list — the state with the highest number of bank failures:

Experts say it’s a combination of an antiquated state law that favored a plethora of smaller community banks over multi-branch giants; a population explosion in metro Atlanta that fueled massive suburban real estate development and a crush of new banks formed to cash in on the Atlanta boom shortly before the market tanked.

…

Georgia’s diversity of small banks was an asset when the economy was strong, with consumers benefiting from competitive rates and broader sources of credit, said James Verbrugge, a professor emeritus of finance at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. It became a liability when the bottom fell out of the housing market and smaller banks had less capital to weather the crisis.

The excerpts don’t do the article justice. Give it a read for your daily dose of edumacation.

(Hat tip to Travis Fain)

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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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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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First Congressman John Lewis, now rapper Young Jeezy.

In the August issue of Vibe magazine, Young Jeezy is quoted in the cover story as saying, “No disrespect to Barack, but I fuck with John McCain.”

Turns out, he meant to say the opposite. At least, that’s what he’s saying now in a classic what-had-happened-was moment. He’s even posted a YouTube video statement to clarify his position, saying “somewhere down the line my words got misconstrued.”

Read more in Crib Notes.

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