Most mornings I sit down in front of a computer screen and have an entirely unproductive 20 minutes while the coffee is steeping and getting cold. Then the day is peppered with emails and tweets and newsflashes and blog checkings, all of which are definitely 100% work-related. Still, though, I’m surely missing something – I’m just curious to see if there’s a good source of information for Atlanta culture and goings on.  What blogs should I be paying more attention to?  Is there a google calendar someone put together floating around out there? Does your friend have a hilarious weekly email that he sends to 30 people?  Where do you guys get your Atlanta-based intel? I’ll go first.

I love Scoutmob, like Thrillist (as a stingy female I’m not their primary demographic), and read Creative Loafing blogs and features pretty religiously for things to do/buy and cheap places to eat.  I read CL’s Omnivore blog (love Cliff) and actually go to the AJC for John Kessler’s food column.  For business news I turn to the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Global Atlanta, for Georgia politics I skim Peach Pundit, and I click through Paste Magazine for music and various culture (not Atlanta-specific but based here and such an awesome publication). For neighborhood news I’m on a listserv or two (I think most of the intown neighborhoods have these) and look to the EAV Buzz as well.

What say you guys?

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.

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 guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find that there is one potential issue that young republicans and young democrats can agree on: sunday alcohol sales.

according to this ajc article the two groups will be holding a press conference today to announce their joint support for sunday sales.

ah, nothing brings young people together like the right to get trashed on sunday. seriously, this issue has become the windmill that we tilt at year after year here in georgia.

could this be the year? i doubt it, but momentum is growing.

h/t to the atlanta beer guide for sending the link. any guesses where those folks stand on this issue?

well i saw it in the ajc today. someone is back with the most colossally stupid idea for downtown revitalization i can think of. according to today’s ajc, a developer is back pitching the idea of turning underground atlanta into a casino.

i rememebr this idea coming up before when i lived in atlanta back in 1999 and i think i remember it being pitched again a few years ago.

i have a feeling there is plenty of research to back me up, though i am not going to go look for it right now, but just on the face of it , i can’t think of anything worse for downtown atlanta than a casino.

maybe a strip club. maybe.

seriously, the point of this post was to query if anyone out there thinks this is a good idea.

anyone?

how about my downtown guys…ben? rashid?

the parking lot of the ace hardware in the east atlanta villiage is a plot of land i know very well. i visit the ace hardware in the eav at least once a month or so and either run or walk past it at least four to five times a week. this parking lot is only about 1/2 mile from my house.

it also happened to be the scene of yet another shooting last night, and yet another fatality last night.

at least in this instance the good guys are still alive. the victim of an armed robbery who had left the graveyard tavern pulled his own weapon and shot the robber 5-6 times, leaving him dead in the parking lot.

there was a time when i ate a lot more red meat, listened to a lot more right-wing talk radio and still believed in the death penalty, when i would have stood up cheering for this, as many on the popular east atlanta message eavbuzz are doing this morning. while i can’t join them in celebrating the loss of life, i certainly don’t begrudge them their feelings.

behind it is a sense of overwhelming frustration at what is occurring in these neighborhoods. yes, i realize, as karsh pointed out that this happens in all neighborhoods and we should care, but when it happens consistently within a tight radius of where you live or frequent after a long period of relative quiet, and when the crime begins to seem so senseless and so fatal, the frustration definitely grows to a level that i can grasp why some would actually celebrate the death of this criminal.

i don’t know. i have changed with age and no longer support the death penalty or listen to too much right-wing talk radio (although i still eat a bunch of red meat) and i can’t cheer at the death of this person, but i don’t feel sorry for him either and i am glad this ended with the person committing the crime dead as opposed to the victim (ala john henderson.)

my one hope is maybe it will serve as a deterrent. maybe the next armed robber will think twice before pulling his own weapon.

in closing, i don’t know who this guy was, but to be able to draw on someone that has already drawn on you with all the adrenaline of being in the middle of a violent crime and manage to put 5-6 rounds in them is pretty impressive.

maybe jack bauer paid a visit to the eav last night?

UPDATE: as cap’n ken points out in the comments, when i mention “another shooting and another fatality” above, i am NOT referring to one at that location but rather the shooting at the standard the other week. sorry for any confusion.

a server was shot in an armed robbery at the standard restaurant and bar on memorial drive in grant park early this morning. according to the report in the ajc, the server was shot after he had already handed the four armed robbers the money they demanded.

reports later today are out that the man died at grady hospital from gunshot wounds.

this happened two miles from my house. i guess it is a reminder that no matter how hip and cool these gentrified neighborhoods become, they are still in the middle of a city that has a big old crime problem it’s leaders don’t like to address (well, beyond changing street names.)

it’s also a reminder that the human capacity for evil is alive and well.

my thoughts and prayers are with the family of this victim and all who work at the standard. i am sure they are in shock.

i just got a “breaking news alert” from the atlanta journal-constitution that zoo atlanta has named the latest panda cub xi lan, or “atlanta’s joy.” this to complement sister mei lan.

leaving aside for the moment the ajc’s rather loose definition of what consists of breaking news, i have a question. are we required by virtue of contract to have to name these pandas with chinese names?

surely we could do better. maybe something highlighting atlanta’s rich hip-hop tradition, like “young pandizzle.” or “shawty pandah.”

or we could highlight atlanta’s rich sports tradition, maybe “the highlight panda” or “john rocker.”

i’m just sayin’.