Some kind of major outage in case any Buzzers come here looking for answers. My answer is - dunno. I can’t even connect to GoDaddy support on the phone right now. Must be major bustage going on over there.
Looks like I might ought to hustle up the migration to my new host …
Update 9:29 p.m. EDT - About 10 attempts to get a working connection to phone support (often ending up in the general voicemail box) and 20 minutes on hold, I was told by the rep that yes! they are having issues!!! Databases are down, mail is down, some websites in general and just … down. He said they’re working unscheduled maintenance (no kidding) to get things back up and running, but has no ETA.
Funniest part was that I told the guy if GoDaddy would update their network status page to show they’re having issues, a lot of people like me probably wouldn’t have called. His reply was that he’s never heard of the network status page and wouldn’t know where to find it. I said “Google ‘godaddy network status‘” … was pretty easy for me to find …
Despite the aggravation of their recent sidewalk blockage, East Atlanta is eagerly awaiting the opening of The Midway Pub on Flat Shoals Avenue, and Buzzer Not Fred’s Nate confirmed that the opening will happen on Tuesday, April 29 at 5 p.m.
If history is any indication, The Midway staff had best be ready for anything but a “soft opening” on that night. Buzzers swarmed The Glenwood, Kasan Red and Holy Taco when they first opened, and packed houses on what might otherwise be quiet weeknight openings are to be expected with Buzzers get wind of it.
But the good news is by and large Buzzers understand that things aren’t going to go smoothly on opening night, but it’s been a real trial by fire for recent openings.
And April 29, 2008 will be a big day in East Atlanta. For about seven years the building where The Midway is going has been vacant and neglected, and Flat Shoals south of Glenwood has been a lonely place up until now. But with The Midway, East Atlanta Icehouse and the bakery planned for a small building right on the edge of the commercial district, things are picking up on EAV’s south side.
Disappointing news out of DeKalb court today - accused serial burglar Demarcus Buice was granted bond after being denied bond last Saturday when Buzzers showed up for court. And while his bond is what a Buzzer with DA connections calls very high for the crimes he’s charged with ($125,000), it’s quite disheartening to go from feeling like citizens can make a difference to feeling like a sucker for even trying in the span of five days.
And the assistant district attorney who spoke for the state Saturday had told us this hearing was no big deal and we didn’t need to turn out for it. Gee, thanks for that.
How long it’ll take for Buice’s family to find enough of the cash Demarcus has made stealing flat-panel TVs and laptops or fence some of the “inventory” he no doubt has stashed somewhere to raise the bond is unclear. But if he ends up back on the street before trial, the message will be clear that DeKalb Superior Court isn’t willing to protect citizens against the thugs preying on our neighborhoods.
One of the great pleasures of urban living are the little gems of garbage stashed around the neighborhood. And among the more frequent and troublesome items are junk tires. Sometimes they’re obvious, sometimes you have to look hard, but trash tires are strewn around intown neighborhoods like some kind of bizarre Easter Egg hunt.
Add to that the old tires being kept at people’s houses (don’t they know just to go dump them somewhere?) and rounding up junk tires makes for a good Earth Day activity in East Atlanta.
Earth Day is April 26, but Buzzers got a jump on things with a pre-Earth-Day roundup this past weekend; grabbing the real hard-to-get tire treasures. But don’t worry; there will be plenty more tires to round up and haul off on the 26th if you’d like to pitch in - or let your tire-hoarding neighbors know somebody will come take them off their hands that day if they leave them out by the curb. Check the Buzz post below for details on what’s going down on the 26th.
Part of the haul from last weekend (proudly overseen by Buzzer MRice:
Buzzer Wanker, who happens to own Holy Taco and is fast-becoming EAV’s most in-touch business owner, sent his crew out on Sunday and rounded up another 76 tires for the first-round collection. Good stuff - and not even on Earth Day!
The East Atlanta Community Association will also be hosting a number of events on Earth Day, so check out what’s happening when we give EAV over to the hippies completely.
The Midway Pub, which is nearly ready to open on Flat Shoals Avenue in East Atlanta Village, built a big, wide, nice sidewalk out in front of their space (as required by the city), and they sure do like it. Or, at least, they sure to like to park on the sidewalk and block pedestrian access in our pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
Last week I came across a guy there who not only thought parking on the sidewalk was a swell idea, he made a real jerk of himself when I confronted him about it (as I was trying to walk by with my eight-month-old daughter). Buzzers didn’t all appreciate my approach, but save for a couple of edge cases, the group agrees that parking on the sidewalk shouldn’t be tolerated.
Then today I’m driving around, roll past The Midway Pub and see this:
Somebody working at The Midway Pub thought it would be a good idea to block the entire sidewalk with their Lexus SUV (with Henry County tags - I guess they don’t have sidewalks down there).
I’ve got a suggestion for Carsten Green and the guys at The Midway Pub. If you want to be welcomed in East Atlanta, don’t do things like block the sidewalk with your cars. It’s not the right foot to start out on.
It was a very interesting morning for a group of Buzzers who ventured out to DeKalb Magistrate Court for the bond hearing of one Demarcus Buice. Buice is charged with four burglaries and one attempted burglary and is suspected in dozens more. He has been on the Atlanta Police Most Wanted list for at least six months and was finally captured this week after a CrimeStoppers tip.
Getting to see his booking mugshot was a highlight of our week.
Last night I got an email from Ed Gilgor (the public safety bulldog of our community association) saying Buice had a bond hearing this morning and that community turnout was key to win a bond denial and keep him in jail. Buzzers had already stepped up with letters sent to the DeKalb District Attorney’s office in opposition to releasing a guy who was wanted by police for six months and is linked to dozens of burglaries back into the neighborhood. But Gilgor stressed the importance of public turnout, and despite the very late notice we turned out a dozen Buzzers for the hearing today.
And our attendance was just a bonus - victims of Buice’s alleged burglaries in East Lake and Kirkwood (the neighborhoods hit in the burglaries Buice is charged for now) were there with other residents of those areas. In total, about 30 people came out on a Saturday morning, and a couple of hundred other people spoke up with letters to APD and the DA’s office.
The effect of this level of community involvement to push hard on the justice system is significant, and it’s an important lesson for anybody living in areas being targeted for this kind of property crime.
Typically, an initial appearance in court includes just the defendant, the judge and the officer who swore out the warrants. Facts of the warrant are presented, the judge questions the defendant about his life on the outside, and the judge considers really basic information to determine what level of bond to set. That’s the way it went for the three other guys making initial appearances today.
But Buice faced a very different sort of thing this morning. Because of the community involvement and expected turnout, DeKalb assistant DA Gunnar Pak showed up to speak for the state and the residents and met with Judge Janis Gordon before the hearing. He was able to explain Buice’s history, his suspected involvement in many other burglaries and the neighborhoods’ concern about him being released on bond to the judge, giving her a clear context for the hearing.
And the impact of that was dramatic. The judge challenged Buice hard on why he should be granted bond, and he had no answers. The point of showing up was to get bond denied, and thankfully that happened.
Buice, however, stepped up to make the court appearance truly awesome. Perhaps feeling intimidated by the crowd the judge reminded him was sitting behind him or pressured by Pak calling him a “professional” burglar, Buice cracked. When Pak told the judge Buice was suspected of being a leader of a crew responsible for dozens of burglaries, Buice bristled and said he hasn’t done nearly that many burglaries. The judge quickly reminded Buice that it’s not advisable for a defendant to speak to the charges in an initial court appearance.
But he wasn’t done.
In the process of trying to make his case for bond, Buice told the judge he grew up in Kirkwood, feels bad for the trouble he’s caused and that the judge doesn’t have to worry about him breaking in to any more houses. He then turned around to the crowd behind him and apologized for breaking into our homes. Pak told us afterward that Buice’s preliminary hearing may consist solely of him reading the statements Buice made today.
WSB-TV was on hand to capture the magic.
The admissions were a sideshow, however. The key point that was made today is community involvement does make a difference in how DeKalb County views defendants. There aren’t a lot of guys like Buice who have been identified in so many burglaries or wanted for so long, but we now have a blueprint for working with police and prosecutors to keep such guys off the streets.
And a whole lot of credit needs to be given to Judge Gordon, who was sole discretion on Buice’s bond. She listened, she understood and she did the right thing.
A lot of East Atlantans were fans of the now-closed Le Cafe Hinds, an out-of-the-way French restaurant tucked away on Stokeswood Avenue on the edge of EAV. Problem was, if you didn’t live in East Atlanta, you probably didn’t know the place existed, and despite generally good reviews, ultimately the restaurant failed.
Rumors have been circulating for a little while that Anderson Hinds may be looking to bring a new concept to the cafe space he still controls, and today Buzzer Kevy Duty ran into Mr. Hinds and confirmed that barbecue will be the concept for the restaurant’s rebirth.
Barbecue is a tough business - you gotta be really good to build an audience, and a bunch of Buzzers are fans of Fox Bros. BBQ up on DeKalb Avenue. But we’re all fans of non-empty storefronts, so this is good news for the neighborhood.
You have to have been around East Atlanta a good while to remember The Village, a very small, very dingy, red-windowed bar next door to what is now Kasan Red. Somehow they managed to squeeze blues bands into the place, and it was a rockin’ joint. It shut down a few years ago and the space has sat vacant.
But that may soon change. Buzzer Not Fred’s Nate got some good “on the street” details about plans to re-open the place sometime “soon” (soon being a relative term when dealing with the city of Atlanta). From the early intel, it sounds like the owners may be trying to focus on music and plan to really upgrade the space. Not much they can do about the size, but EAV has enough big spaces already. Buzzer Joe Brown’s Beard says one of the owners may be involved with Yin/Yang in Midtown.
So hot on the heels of yesterday’s news about East Atlanta Antiques closing up shop comes word that the building was actually sold last Monday for $1.4 million. DeKalb County online property records are notoriously slow to be updated, but a little bit of informed sleuthing showed the buyer to be an LLC controlled by Jeff Notrica, the head honcho at Inman Park Properties.
I’ve written a lot about Notrica and Inman Park Properties over at Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom, but a quick primer for those who may not be familiar.
Inman Park Properties is a large “developer” of commercial property here in Atlanta. The company has a reputation for buying up properties and sitting on them for a long, long time. And often, the properties they own are left vacant and allowed to rot away, affecting the character of their neighborhoods surrounding them. Here in East Atlanta, Jeff Notrica’s most infamous property is the John B. Gordon School, a former Atlanta Public School that Inman Park Properties purchased a decade ago with promises to turn it into fabulous intown lofts.
Here’s a look at their progress on the Gordon School:
Also in Notrica’s decaying-property portfolio are the former B&W Market and East Atlanta Lock & Key right in the heart of EAV. While Inman Park Properties does have most of their properties in East Atlanta leased (they are landlord to Village Hardware, The Glenwood, My Sister’s Room, Holy Taco, the new Midway Pub and several other businesses), the company’s willingness to leave properties sitting vacant and decaying is a big concern.
So when it’s revealed the Notrica purchased the Antiques Store property last month and I stumble across the fact that an LLC of his purchased the property where the East Atlanta Post Office sits late last year; well, it’s concerning.
The map below shows which EAV properties are owned by the major landlords here. Inman Park Properties is in red.
Knowing that so much of EAV is owned by a guy who’s willing to let properties sit vacant and rotting if that meets his long-term business goals is unsettling, and the fact that Notrica seems to quietly buy up every property that becomes available is more than unsettling.
Buzzers see a day when Notrica owns the entire Village, kicks everybody out, tears the place down and builds some new, faux-authentic condos-above-stores development.
Once upon a time (that time ended about four years ago), East Atlanta had its own little grocery store - Best Buy Foodstore. Problem is, Best Buy was a pretty crappy store. It would do in a pinch for grabbing some half and half or other missing ingredients, but it just wasn’t in step with the revitalization of the neighborhood.
Then Best Buy went away and was replaced by the East Atlanta Arts & Antiques Bazaar (EAAAB, they call it), which has always been a so-so little rent-a-booth antiques / flea market place. A good place to kill a few minutes on a Village stroll, and on occasion you might find something interesting there. But on the whole, it was hard to see the pressing need EAAAB was filling in East Atlanta Village.
So word has come down now that EAAAB is closing up shop this month. That drew disappointment and concern from the Buzz crowd - stores moving out is rarely a good thing. But it also opened a glimmer of hope that what should have happened four years ago might happen now.
East Atlanta is begging for a small neighborhood grocery store (that doesn’t suck). With the fanaticism Buzzers show toward Trader Joe’s (there is finally one in Atlanta, and a lot of people are willing to drive to Midtown to do their shopping with TJs) and good food & drink in general, I think a quality little grocery would do just fine here in EAV.
We live in a neighborhood where we can walk our dogs to the vet and shop at a neighborhood hardware store. We’re a great market for a great market (as it were). In fact, though the EAAAB space is a bit small for a Trader Joe’s (8,520 square feet compared to about 10,000 to 12,000 square feet in a typical TJs), I think the company would be wise to at least check into the possibility.
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