The ink is barely dry on Decatur’s “unified concept plan” for retooling the 77-acre site the city purchased from the United Methodist Children’s Home, and already there’s a lively online conversation about which aspects of the plan should developed first.
Tag: Decatur
Posted inColumns
Decatur opens public housing that may be model for the future
The next generation of public housing may have opened recently in Decatur. Trinity Walk provides affordable homes in green buildings on a sustainable campus, with on-site resources to address the nutritional and human service needs of residents.
Posted inColumns
Run Oprah run? Don’t count on it
Oprah Winfrey delivered the commencement address for Agnes Scott College in Decatur. Those expecting a life-affirming message from the media icon got their wish. But those hoping the billionaire guru would offer a glimmer of hope for a future White House bid were sorely disappointed.
Posted inLatest News
Decatur buys Methodist children’s home for greenspace, home to use money to expand services
Decatur’s City Commission agreed Monday to buy the United Methodist Children’s Home, located in the city. The $40 transaction adds 77 acres of greenspace to Decatur and provides the children’s home funds to refocus and expand the territory it serves.
Posted inSeen in Atlanta
“Umbrella coverage” by Kelly Jordan #5
This week’s theme is “Umbrella Coverage”
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Decatur park to be built by pure determination of advocates
A former eye sore of a gas station in Decatur is to be rejuvenated into a community park once the soil is remediated in a process that could begin as early as Wednesday.
Posted inKelly Jordan, Seen in Atlanta
Gates, grates, screens and fences by Kelly Jordan
This week’s theme is “Gates, grates, screens and fences”
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
A tough coach, a rainy day and a garden goodbye
Gardening during a recent torrential downpour with my very driven father—a 78-year-old golf pro and lay minister— brought back old lessons in resiliency and competition. In families like ours, standing up for your beliefs requires communicating across generations.
Posted inMichelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
Local Bikram yoga studio reinvents itself after guru’s alleged abuse
Practicing yoga created an awareness in Eric Jennings’ life that led him to establishing Bikram Yoga Decatur, or BYD, in 2002. As he became more aware of sex abuse claims against his mentor Bikram Choudhury, Jennings wrestled with distancing himself from his guru. For successful businesses, a name change can be a kiss of death.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
Crushed car windows beautify C Glass Jewelry
Corinne Adams’ artistic vision saw past the shattered window of her VW Touareg and admired the nuggets of safety glass scattered like diamonds on the ground. Today the Buckhead photographer and mixed media artist creates cuffs, earrings, belt buckles and more from the glass remnants of car crimes and misadventures. C Glass accessories convey a message of hope and redemption, and often are given to mark a loss or difficult life event, as a message that what is broken can become something beautiful.
Posted inUncategorized
Incorporation pushes unwanted marriages on DeKalb neighborhoods
In north-central DeKalb County, my home is among thousands in the crosshairs of cityhood movements and proposed annexations. Count me among the otherwise sensible DeKalb County residents who rightly worry that a new city we’ve never heard of is going to take us over, or even worse, ignore us.
No one wants to be an unincorporated island surrounded by cities. But lots of us are in a pickle. Our zip code (30033) is Decatur, but we’re not in the city proper, and it doesn’t want us anyway.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
Atlanta men, man up for girls. Period.
Without men, you can’t spell menstruation. And that’s as far as most men want to read about this subject. But local men like Nathan Hilkert are manning up to encourage other men to pitch in for Days for Girls, a volunteer effort that targets a big barrier to educating girls in developing countries. When they have their periods, they miss school. Days for Girls prepares and delivers reusable feminine hygiene kits.
Men and boys play an incredibly important role in tackling the taboos around menstruation that isolate and weaken girls and help lead to sexual exploitation and violence.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
What to do with a rabid cat
Until you’ve been chased by an animal that’s foaming at the mouth, you haven’t really experienced the terror of rabies.
Recent reports of potentially rabid animals threatening humans have reminded me of my own encounter with a rabid cat that I trapped with a recycling bin in my DeKalb County backyard just as it leapt to attack me. While it sounds like a freak occurrence, it’s surprisingly common especially during our warmest months, and it’s dead serious.
Last Thursday, a 13-year-old boy strangled a fox that had bit him. He’s receiving precautionary anti-rabies treatment pending the outcome of tests to determine if the animal was rabid.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
With love to Garcia Marquez, one word at a time
On a day that seemed so damp that fish could have come in through the door and floated out the windows, lovers of the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) gathered at Kavarna coffeehouse in Decatur to pay their respects by reading from his timeless stories of families, war, death, and above all, the magic of love.
They came to 100 Readers of Solitude, named in homage to the author’s greatest novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Anos de Soledad).” One by one they read vigorously, declaratively, and with humor, like Garcia Marquez wrote.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
Local mandala expert advises: Wait to make resolutions
Let me guess. It’s barely two weeks into 2014 and you’re already wavering on your New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’ve blown them altogether. Or if you’re like me, you haven’t even started them yet. What was supposed to be a fresh start is already a dead end.
Maybe we’ve got this all wrong. Susanne Fincher says the dead of winter is precisely the wrong time to setting out to change ourselves. She’s a Jungian psychotherapist, a licensed counselor, registered art therapist and a leading international expert on mandalas—sacred circles found throughout centuries and cultures. At the core of her work is the study and understanding of cycles and patterns that are universal.
Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith
Longtime Atlanta protester targets Walmart and more
Even though Walmart will likely take over Suburban Plaza shopping center in Decatur, Brian Sherman still isn’t giving up. Late last week, he stood among a couple of dozen placard-waving protesters from Good Growth DeKalb insisting Walmart can still be stopped.
Their unflagging commitment intrigued me. I stopped at their protest, feeling cynical in the wake of news that the Atlanta Braves will move to Cobb County. Why continue to fight Big Money, the Power, the Man, or whatever you call It when It always seems to get Its way? That was my question to Sherman, who at 70 has been fighting the fight since the 1960s.
“Because,” said Sherman rather defiantly, “We eventually win.”
