Fresh Loaf

While I was up in Washington, D.C. and New York City on a fact-finding mission, it looks like y’all had a helluva time. Mayor Shirley Franklin asked the feds for a life preserver, the Georgia Department of Transportation decided years-old e-mails of a lascivious nature weren’t grounds for dismissal (use Gchat, Gena!), Buckhead was — gasp — called overdeveloped, and the DeKalb County Courthouse was visited by Peter, Ray and Egon. Oh yeah, and some guy who lost a presidential election visited. And there was also this news.

Sure, all I have to show for my hedonistic jaunt are a lot of blisters and FedEx receipts because I shipped all my books, DVDs and tiger-taming gear from my old NYC apartment to Decatur. But it’s good to be back. I’m eager to get back into covering the U.S. Senate and Public Service Commission races and all the other sordid beats. And finally getting the pedicure that I, being the “prominent journalist” that I am, promised a lucky lady. Viva Atlanta! Viva Creative Loafing! Viva chaos!

How was your week, Atlanta?

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“I have always accepted responsibility for my actions, and this issue is no different.”

Except that he still doesn’t. Instead of admitting he made a mistake, re: driving drunk, Benji believes the mistake is not speaking out sooner about it. It’s really quite sad.

— FlackAttack of Tondee’s Tavern writing about state Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Augusta, and his recent me-so-sorry letter to constituents regarding his year-old DUI arrest.

Will we see demand for smaller, more energy efficient spaces come back? Certainly green building trends will increase – they are already on the rise, and saving energy is the primary financial driver for this (as opposed to the warm and fuzzies you get for ‘living green’). I think gas prices are already driving demand to in-town neighborhoods, although the credit crunch has stalled a lot of that movement.

— Ben at Terminal Station, an excellent Atlanta blog covering real estate and land-use issues in metro Atlanta, writing about high gas and energy prices and how the crunch may affect the intown resurgence in a tight credit market.

the trip has been incredible so far. the picture above was taken outside the fairmont lake louise. it had to be one of the most stunning settings i have seen in some time.

— James at The Arc of Time is on vacation with his family in Canada, finding Internet access where he can, and crouching in front of a lake that’s full, clean and surrounded by majestic mountains. Click the link for a photo.

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Gas prices and parking costs will inspire more city-bound vacationers to hop on a climate-controlled train rather than sit in gridlock and bake. The American Public Transportation Association estimates that public transportation use in the nation’s urban tourist destinations will increase seven percent over last year’s numbers.

Estimated increases among top-ten destination cities surveyed:

New York City (53 percent – up 5 percent)

Washington, DC (47 percent – up 1 percent)

Boston (48 percent – up 5 percent)

San Francisco (40 percent – remained constant)

Philadelphia (38 percent – up 4 percent)

Chicago (35 percent – up 4 percent)

Seattle (32 percent – up 2 percent)

Las Vegas (30 percent – up 4 percent)

Los Angeles (31 percent – up 5 percent)

Atlanta (25 percent – up 3 percent)

We’ll see if MARTA can handle the small uptick in demand. Thanks to the state not ponying up any cash to help move people around the state’s most vibrant area, the agency’s getting by on what it can.

From APTA, in a press release after the jump:
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