how low will turnout be in the atlanta mayor run-off?

20%, 15%, could we even get to 10%?

whatcha think?

from fox five atlanta’s story on the atlanta mayoral race:

Election officials estimated voter turnout could be at its lowest in recent memory, with far fewer ballots cast than the 35 percent of registered voters who participated in recent mayoral races.

wtf?

with crime ascendant, the city in fiscal chaos and three very interesting top tier candidates running, how is it that so few of you could be bothered to go vote.

now i am all about not voting for someone if there is no one on the ballot you can in good conscience support, but show up and write someone in (i do this every two years, when one or another of my friends gets one vote against john lewis.)

i really do want to hear from you city residents who couldn’t be bothered to vote for the next mayor yesterday.

why?

t’s municipal election day in georgia. these are typically the lowest turnout elections in the world so we here at the metblog are encouraging you to get out and vote. these elections are just as important as any other, and maybe more, since you are electing the people who will run the governments you interact with the most.

in case you haven’t noticed, we have a pretty wild mayoral race going on in the city of atlanta right now, and there are other big elections today across the metro area.

if, as often happens, you forgot where you are registered, or where your polling place is, you can head over to the secretary of state’s web site for some quick info.

and, if you are city of atlanta resident like me, and like me STILL aren’t quite sure who in the world to vote for in the myriad positions that are up for election this blog for democracy post is a great place to get started, with videos and links to the candidates’ web sites.

happy voting.

my favorite atlanta-based rock band is not one of those trendy indie bands. you won’t see their name painted on the krog street underpass or read about them in paste. yes, our city has plenty of those and many are very good, but my favorite atlanta band has to be roots rock combo the beggar’s guild (web facebook myspace).

i love these guys because they play tight, well written rock songs about all the great rock themes. the music is catchy and fun and they are pretty incredible musicians. i have been to see them live many times and never left after a bad time. they also happen to be pretty decent dudes, the kind of musicians you want to support. even if drummer jon chalden is a cardinals fan. seriously it’s good enough to get me to overcome that objection.

anyway, the guys are playing tonight at smith’s in support of sam thacker and his cd release. i don’t know sam thacker at all, but i can tell you this, if the guys in the beggar’s guild are playing with him, he’s probably pretty good.

so go check ‘em out.

tickets $10 advance until 2pm today on ticket alternative, or $12 at the door.

okay, time to give just a little bit of link-love to my newest and somewhat expensive new obsession, the atlanta cupcake factory.

i don’t know why, but a couple of weeks ago i dropped in here on a whim on my way home from the whole foods on ponce (yes, no boycott for me) and decided to see the goods and pick up a surprise dessert for my friends who were coming over that evening.

i looked in the case and was floored. row after row of amazingly crafted cupcakes. flavors that knocked me out too; sugar cookie with caramel icing, cinnamon cupcakes, key lime pie cupcakes. i bought six and took them home and they delivered.

oh did they ever.

anyway, i went back again and got another clamshell. i am still working my way through the various flavors bu the consensus seems to be on the sugar cookie cupcakes, and i can tell you from personal experience that if you see the grasshopper icing or the nutella cupcake jump on it.

the dreaded “non-commercial” creative commons license is unfrotunately keeping me from dropping a photo in this post (and i was too silly to bring along my camera) but just click here and you will see what i mean.

here are the details:

atlanta cupcake factory
www.theatlantacupcakefactory.com
624 north highland ave
678-358-9195

it’s friday afternoon and that means we want to hear what the heck you are up to this weekend?

debauchery? revolution? strange mystical ceremonies?

or are you just planning on relaxing at home after a 14 mile run and eating some incredible cupcakes like yours truly?

let us know….

we always like to give a bit of a shout out to atlanta-based business that we particularly like, and we are not doubt fans of the atlanta-based startup regator, a blog aggregation and filtering service. we particularly like the fact that regator hand picks the blogs fed into it’s service, which while potentially reflecting bias on the part of the fliterers (although if it does it’s indsicernable to us), has the great affect of ensuring that junk stays out of the feed.

either way, reagtor launched it’s iphone app today (download here) and we are more than impressed. it’s easy to navigate with a crisp ui. additionally they enabled landscaping, which is a huge bonus for any app that wants to build web browsing into the app (ahem tweetdeck) and seems on first use (we played around with it extensively on the bus this morning) to be almost bug free (again, amazing for a first cut iphone app.)

kudos to regator on a job well done!!!

in other atl web start-up news we are intrigued by spitter.com which looks to be a regator-type aggregator for sports combined with social-networking forum thingys. since it’s atlanta-based and sports oriented we’ll probably check it out and if we aren’t too lazy we might give you a report.

also, we don’t know why we are writing in the first person plural. we pledge to stop this immediately upon conclusion of this post.

we promise.

dammit.

it’s finally here. the consequences of the state legislature’s failure to act to secure additional funding from marta are finally here. i do very much hope this is not the beginning of a death-spiral where decreased service leads to decreased ridership leading to decreased revenue and repeat.

also, i dream of a day when our leaders realize vibrant public transportation is a key component of a truly world class city, and by extension a prosperous georgia, and that is should exist as a public good not a money-making endeavor and fund it appropriately.

sigh, okay /soapbox.

anyway, marta service cuts are scheduled to begin this saturday, tomorrow, including the elmination of a the #23 and #182 bus routes and cuts in frequency to many bus routes and train service. especially hit will be off-peak train service.

you can check here to see what routes are affected and how.

fortunately for me at least, both of my main bus routes have survived intact for now.

this story recently reported in the ajc absolutely punched me in the gut:

Just 12 days after she and her family moved to Clarkston from Nepal for a “better life,” 6-year-old Sukmaya Mager was dead, run down by an SUV driver illegally passing a stopped MARTA bus, police said.

Six-year-old Sukmaya Mager died Wednesday of her injuries after being struck by a vehicle when she got off a MARTA bus. A Newton County man allegedly passed the bus on the wrong side of the road, hitting the Clarkston girl.

“Today would have been her first day at Indian Creek Elementary,” Clarkston Police Chief Tony Scipio told reporters Wednesday, just hours after Sukmaya died of head and internal injuries.

Her parents and her 10-year-old brother, refugees relocated to the Atlanta suburb, are in “disbelief”, the chief said. They don’t understand U.S. laws and culture, they do not speak English and they have no relatives here, according to Scipio.

so much about it just saddens me. an innocent little girl, leaving a war-torn past behind. starting out here in the land of opportunity and being killed by that most quintessential of american sins; impatience.

maybe it’s because i ride marta almost every day that this affected me so much. i see it too; people who fly around marta buses, because they just can’t be incovneienced to wait an extra three or four minutes while the bus stops to let people off. maybe it’s because i walk a lot to, and have almost been run down in crosswalks by people not looking coming off of stop signs.

i don’t know for sure, but this story really, really affected me.

i found out about it from creative loafing author andy nouraee on his twitter feed, and andy dug up some information on the international rescue committee here in atlanta that was responsible for resettling this family and sent it along to me. i made a donation this morning is sukmaya mager’s honor, hoping that maybe some of that money can be used to help that family in this tragedy.

one thing to note as well, everyone the irc settles is here in this country legally as a refugee. the us accepts thousands of war refugees from all over the world every year.

maybe you could consider doing the same.

here is the link again:

international rescue committee in atlanta

i am training right now for the 2009 marine corps marathon with the georgia chapter of team in training (which by the way is an incredible org and if you are thinking of trying an endurance event i highly recommend them.) i’ve trained for and run four marathons now, but this is my first time training for an early fall event. and what i have learned is that means i am training right through the heart of atlanta’s summer.

and it’s humid. damn humid.

actually i have been quite unprepared for how difficult it is to run long mileage in this humidity. the runs are draining, i sweat like crazy and no matter how much water i drink i can’t seem to get through the run without sweating out everything.

so how about it atlanta runners….those of you with lots of experience running through this humidity. do you have any advice for me? what tricks do you use to get through these dog days of august.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

******WARNING SHAMELESS PLUG FOLLOWS*******

(that means stop reading if you are going to be offended by a shameless plug. don’t click the link if you don’t want to read it.)

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