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Virtual Festivals
Decatur Book Festival, Dragon Con go virtual
By Collin Kelley
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Two of Intown’s biggest end-of-summer events are going virtual due to the ongoing pandemic. Both Dragon Con and the Decatur Book Festival will become online events over Labor Day weekend. Details were still being ironed out at press time, but Dragon Con, which usually takes over Downtown hotels and hosts an annual cosplay parade down Peachtree, is planning online panels, workshops, contests, and a chance to virtually meet scifi/fantasy actors, authors, and artists. Some of the special guests lined up for 2020 include “Dresden Files” author Joshilyn Jackson Jim Butcher; “Star Wars” books author Timothy Zahn; “Steven Universe” voice actors Estelle, Zach Callison, Jennifer Paz, Grace Rolek and Deedee Magno Hall; “Star Trek: Enterprise” and “Resident Evil” actor DC Douglas; and actor Gil Gerard from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”
More guests and events will be added, so be sure to visit DragonCon.org for the lineup. Book lovers who usually flock to Decatur will also be watching their favorite authors online, as the annual Decatur Book Festival goes virtual.
“In the interest of public health, we have determined that holding a large-scale physical festival this Labor Day weekend is not feasible,” said Joy Pope, the festival’s Interim Executive Director. “Instead, we are planning a virtual festival that will celebrate the DBF’s 15th anniversary in a way that is unique to our community. We want to bring content, candor, and civic engagement into our lives in meaningful ways – something that the events of the past week have made more urgent than ever before. Beginning on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and continuing through September, the festival will present 15 virtual events that will represent the best of what the DBF does: ignite conversations inspired by diverse books and authors that engage our hearts and minds.”
The DBF has already begun virtual programming with its popular Joshilyn Jackson Reads series. With the help of Georgia Center for the Book and metro Atlanta libraries, the festival is featuring a total of eleven talks between New York Times-bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson and 18 writers of her choosing whose works span genres and topics.
Visit decaturbookfestival.com to see the full lineup of events for the virtual festival.
The Dunwoody Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIP 30338 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net Dunwoody Reporter reporternewspapers.net PRSRT STD ECRWSS US Postage PAID Monroe, GA Permit #15 POSTAL CUSTOMER MAY 2019 • VOL. 10 — NO. 5 DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net Dunwoody’s old Austin Elementary School, which was expected to close once a new, 900-seat version debuts next year, may remain open temporarily as DeKalb Schools searches for ways to alleviate overcrowding. Doing so would mean ex tending a lease agreement between the city and the school district, but officials are being tight-lipped about their discus sions. The city currently owns the old school at 5345 Roberts Drive, originally built in 1975, as part of a 2016 land swap deal with DeKalb Schools. The agreement included the city trading the former Dunwoody Se nior Baseball fields for the school proper ty and DeKalb Schools paying the city $3.6 million. DeKalb Schools is building the new school on Roberts Drive on the site of the former baseball fields and adjacent to the Dunwoody Nature Center, less than a half- mile from the current AES. The city has not finalized what it wants to do with the old school property once it is vacated, but talks have generally focused on creating a park space. The new Austin Elementary School is being built using 2011 special lo cal option sales tax funding. As part of the 2016 agreement, the city agreed to lease the old school to DeKalb S ee OLD on page 22 PHIL MOSIER Layla Smith, left, and Corrine Ovellette, eighth-graders at Peachtree Charter Middle School, ride the swings during the 20th edition of the Lemonade Days festival, which ran April 24-28 at Brook Run Park. The festival this year raised money for the Dunwoody Preservation Trust and the Donaldson-Bannister Farm. S ee DEKALB on page 10 BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net DeKalb County CEO Michael Thur mond touted unity as the force behind local resurgence, and cited his “odd cou ple” partnership with Dunwoody Mayor Denis Shortal as key bridge-building, in a special “State of the County” address to business leaders April 25. Adding to the symbolism, the event – hosted by the DeKalb Chamber of Com merce and the policy and lobby group the Council for Quality Growth – was not only held in Dunwoody, but in very same Crowne Plaza Ravinia hotel ball room where the city’s own annual “state DeKalb CEO touts Dunwoody unity in ‘State of County’ address Old Austin Elementary School may remain open to relieve overcrowding Check out our podcasts at ReporterNewspapers.net Flying into spring COMMUNITY Tilly Mill sidewalks spark right-of-way dispute P14 COMMUNITY Who’s running for mayor? So far, just one P12 COMMENTARY Take steps to protect urban wildlife P18 ROBIN’S NEST Mother’s Words of Wisdom P19 WWW.REPORTERNEWSPAPE RS .NE T SECTION TWO MAY 2019 CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 LOCAL COUPLE BRINGS ANIME, GAMING EVENT TO ATLANTA PAGE 26 Sandy Springs Dunw o ody Broo khaven Buckhead The PCIDs marks 20 years of shaping Perimeter Center Pig-N-Chik 10 % off orders over $20 Offer expires 7/31/19 Three GREAT locations! We Deliver! Let us feed your family & friends while you celebrate! www.pignchik.net Sandy Springs/Buckhead 4920 Roswell Road 404-255-636 8 Chamblee/Brookhaven 5071 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. 770-451-1112 Emory Area 1815 Briarcliff Road 404-474-9444 Celebrate Memorial Day and Congratulations to all the 2019 graduates! BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net After 20 years of a population boom, i ncreasingly jammed highways and sky - scraper-sprouting mega-developments, it may sound quaint that people worried about Perimeter Mall traffic way back in 1999. But the Perimeter Community Im - provement Districts, the self-taxing groups of business property owners that formed out of those concerns, are among the rea - sons the local boom has happened and why the traffic isn’t even worse. If you go to Perimeter Center today, you may well get there via one of the big projects the PCIDs pushed – like the Hammond Drive ra mps on Ga. 400 or the Ashford-Dun woody Road diverging diamond inter - change at I-285 – and you’ll see smaller touches they’re responsible for, like land - scaping and rush-hour traffic cops. “They had a reputation for, number one, cleaning things up, providi ng some of those cosmetic amenities we’ve all become used to,” said Ann Hanlon, who watched the CIDs form as a longtime Dunwoody resident and now serves as their executive director. “At the time, that was pretty revo lutionary, that a private group was w illing to pay for those amenities.” Back in 1999, the three cities that to day cover Perimeter Center – Brookhav - en, Dunwoody and Sa ndy Spri ngs – did not yet exist. A s the PCIDs looks ahead t o its next 20 years, it has refocused its mis - sion on transportation, leaving previous proposals such as park-building to the cit ies. Transportation these days means ev - erything from helping to build multiuse trail networks to shaping the future of toll lanes and transit on Ga. 400 and I-285. That’s in addition to some of the basics the PCIDs currently provides or coordinates, like sidewalks and crosswalks, commuter shuttles, traffic signal timing and the Pe - rimeter Conne cts commuter advice ser - vice. An increasingly residential sector is part of Perimeter Center’s future, with SPECIAL Main p hoto, the diverging diamond i ntercha n ge at Ashford-Dunwo ody Road a nd I-285 as it looked shortly after opening in 2012. FILE Inset, the Hammond Drive interchange with Ga. 400 shortly after it opened in 2011. Perimeter Business NATURE AND THEATER MERGE AT DUNWOODY’S PLAY-READING SERIES PAGE 26 Spring 2019 | Where brick-and-mortar retail still works P. 36 Section Two ► Perimeter Business: PCIDs turns 20 ► Q+A with local couple behind Atlanta’s big anime convention Brookhaven Reporter PRSRT STD ECRWSS US Postage PAID Monroe, GA Permit #15 POSTAL CUSTOMER Check out our podcasts and Facebook Live Streams The Brookhaven Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIP 30319 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net reporternewspapers.net BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net The DeKalb County Board of Commis sioners is expected next month to consider a countywide transit master plan designed to improve current rail and bus service and de termine where to build new transit over the next 30 years. As part of that consideration, commis sioners will also have to decide if they be lieve voters are motivated enough to vote for a sales tax increase to pay for the proposed improvements, which include light rail, bus rapid transit and arterial rapid transit in north and south DeKalb. DeKalb County, the Atlanta Regional Commission and MARTA worked with lo cal municipalities and gathered public input over the past year on a proposed transit mas ter plan with three broad goals: address the county’s mobility challenges, foster econom ic development and improve quality of life. Consultants with VHB recently toured DeKalb cities and in June made presenta tions on proposed and conceptual transit master plans to the Brookhaven and Dun - woody City Councils. Both presentations spotlighted two scenarios: a 1 cent sales tax increase that would raise $3.65 billion over 30 years and fund 16 projects, and a halfpenny increase that would raise $1.85 billion over 30 years and fund 15 projects. Increasing the sales tax requires a vote. DeKalb’s current sales tax is 8 percent. Going to a referendum is a major deci sion, Grady Smith, VHB project manager, told the Brookhaven council at its June 10 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for the massive development of its North Druid Hill Campus that will include a new $1.5 billion hospital slated to open in 2025. The deal does not put the city on the BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net The Brookhaven Development Au - thority in June approved issuing $1.1 billion in tax exempt revenue bonds to JULY 2019 • VOL. 11 — NO. 7 Development Authority to issue $1.1B in bonds for CHOA campus DeKalb transit master plan moves ahead, would need sales tax boost S ee DEKALB on page 31 S ee DEVELOPMENT on page 30 WE WANT Y OU R G o ld 2090 Dunwoody Club DR 770-396-0492 lauderhills.com See our ad on page 8 The proposed full-penny DeKalb County transit master plan scenario would include four light rapid transit routes; four bus rapid transit routes including along the top end of I-285; and eight arterial rapid transit routes. These expansions would cover 180 project miles. COMMENTARY Reporter wins 15 Georgia Press awards P10 COMMENTARY GDOT chief: ‘Benefits of express lanes are proven’ P10 ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT PBS to air local singer’s documentary P5 Honored as a newspaper of General Excellence 2018 DUNWOODY SALUTES AMERICA WITH ANNUAL FOURTH OF JULY PARADE See pull-out section pages 15-18 Buckhead Reporter reporternewspapers.net WWW.REPOR TERNEW SPAPE RS .NET SECTION TWO APRIL 20 19 CONTINUED ON PAGE 40 SIGN UP TO RECEIVE DAILY & WEEKLY EMAILS WITH LOCAL NEWS @ REPORTERNEWSPAPERS.NET/SIGNUP A BUCKHEAD MYSTERY INSPIRES MARY KAY ANDREW’S NEW NOVEL PAGE 26 Sandy Springs Du nwoody Brookhaven Buc k hea d Wall to Wall Art BY DO UG CARROLL It took a h ar mo nic convergence of so cial media, a n engineer’s retirement and an unmet need to launch a website map - ping more than 500 street murals in met ro Atlanta. F ittingly, a guy named Art was the one to loc ate all of the art. “I’ve always had an interest in art,” Art Rudick says, “but I’ve never been an artist m yse lf. I once did wo odwor king as a hob - by, ma k ing custom furniture.” The design of a new hobby took shape for Rudick, 61, about three years ago when he and his wife vi sited f amily in Ne w York City. While there, the Atlanta couple took a guided tour of street art in the working- class Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn SPECIAL AD SECTION ■ PAGES 34- 39 An art fan maps street murals in Atlanta and beyond — and everything changed f or Rudick. “It was an eye-opening experience,” he recalls. “This was amazing stuff.” On th e s ame trip, Rudick’s niece intro - duced him to Ins tagram , and he returned home to his Old Fourth Ward neighbor - hood full of curiosity. He wanted to take p h oto s of Atlanta’s street mural s to post on his new Instagram account, but where were the mur als ? How cou l d he find them? Necessity became the mother of inven - tion when Rudick realized that a decent map of th e city’s street art didn’t exist. So, with no previous experience in doing a webs i te, h e t ook it upon himself to create an online guide to Atlanta’s street murals and the art i sts who put them up . The result is the Atlanta Street Art Map at StreetArtMap.org, which has interactive maps covering 14 neighborhoods and such outlying cities as Dunw oo dy, Broo kh aven and Sandy Springs. The site also provides six self-guided walkin g tours of stree t a rt and includes bios of 16 muralists. Rudi ck, an engineer who re tired at the end of 2016 after a 32 -yea r c areer w i th C o ca-C ola, fi nds mos t of his con te nt by follow in g local artists on Instagram. He also has a contact page on his site, and artists some times reach him that way. Twice a year, he says, h e drives around to check on every mural, as part of making sure that the site is current. He’ll often spot new wor k whi l e making the rounds. Rudick says his favorite mural is one by the artist known as Jerkface, based on the Tom and Jerry cartoon characters. The mu r al is t h e fir st stop on the Little Five Points walking tour. “It’s p arti ally be cause I grew up watch ing tha t cartoon, ” Rudick says, explaining the attraction. He says his fav or ite ar tists are Yoyo Fer r o, who uses a technique known as bl ind contour drawing, and five who are part of a c olle ctive known as the Lotus Eaters Club, which does “a lot of interesting and amazing wor k.” He also admires the work of Donna Howells, a Cabbagetown artist in h er seventi e s who began creating murals only recently. Rudi ck keeps his eyes open for mural s in suburban ci ties, too. Ferro’s work ap - pears on Brookhaven’s Cross Keys High School, and th e website notes artwork in such locations as the parking garage of IMAGE COURTESY ART RUDICK A tribute to the for mer Limelight disco behind Binder’s Art Supplies in Buckhead, painted by Dr. Dax and The Loss Prevention. Section Two ► A new website maps metro murals, wall to wall ► Out & About ► Summer Camps APRIL 2019 • VOL. 13 — NO. 4 History Center’s next big exhibit: Rethinking Atlanta’s Olympics legacy Sandy Springs Reporter reporternewspapers.net MAY 2019 • VOL. 13 — NO. 5 BY EVELYN ANDREWS evelyn@reporternewspapers.net COMMUNITY City agrees to extend PATH400 to Johnson Ferry Road P9 COMMUNITY Some residents fear new burglar alarm rules P4 COMMENTARY Take WWW.REPORT E RNEW S P APERS . NET SECTION TWO MAY 2019 CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 LOCAL COUPLE BRINGS ANIME, GAMING EVENT TO ATLANTA PAGE 26 Sandy Springs Dunwoody Brookhaven Buckhead The PCIDs marks 20 years of shaping Perimeter Center Pig-N-Chik 10 % off orders over $20 Offer expires 7/31/19 Three GREAT locations! We Deliver! Let us feed your family & friends while you celebrate! www.pignchik.net Sandy Springs/Buckhead 4920 Roswell Road 404-255-6368 Chamblee/Brookhaven 5071 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. 770-451-1112 Emory Area 1815 Briarcliff Road 404-474-9444 Celebrate Memorial Day and Congratulations to all the 2019 graduates! BY JOHN RUCH jo hnruch@r eporternewspapers.net Aft er 20 years of a p o p ulati on boom, increasingly jammed highways and sky scraper-sprouting me ga- developments, it may sound quaint that people worried abo ut Per imeter Mall traffic way back in 1999. But the Perimeter Community Im - provement Districts, the self-taxing groups of bus iness property o wner s that formed out of those concerns, are among the rea sons t he local boom has happen ed and why the traffic isn’t even worse. If you go to Perimeter Center today, you may w ell get there via one of the big projects the PCIDs pushed – like the Hammond Drive ramps on Ga. 400 or the Ashford-Dun - w o ody Road diverging dia mond inte r change at I-285 – and you’ll see smaller touches they ’re resp o ns ible for , like land scaping and rush-hour traffic cops. “They had a reputation for, number one, c l e a ni ng things up, providing some of those cosmetic amenities we’ve all become used to ,” said Ann Hanlon, who watched the CIDs form as a longtime Dunwoody r esident and now serves as their exec utiv e director. “At the time, that was pretty revo lution ary , that a private group was willing to pay for those amenities.” Back in 1999, the three cities that to - day cover Perimeter Center – Brookhav en, D u nw o ody and Sandy Springs – did not yet exist. As the PCIDs looks ahead to its nex t 20 year s , it has r efocused its mi s sion on transportation, leaving previous proposals such as p a r k-building to the cit ies. Transportation these days means ev erythi ng fr om helping to b u i ld multiuse trail networks to shaping the future of toll l anes and trans i t on G a. 400 and I-285. That’s in addition to some of the basics the PCIDs cu rrently p rovides or coo r dinates, like sidewalks and crosswalks, commuter shuttles, traffic s ig nal timing and the Pe rimeter Connects commuter advice ser - vice . An i ncreasingl y r esidential sector is part of Perimeter Center’s future, with SPECIAL Ma in photo, the diver g ing d iamond in terchange at Ashford-Dunwoody Road and I-285 as it looked shortly after opening in 2012. FI LE Inset, the Hammond Drive interchange with Ga. 4 00 shortly a ft e r it opened in 2011. Perimeter Business NATURE AND THEATER MERGE AT DUNWOODY’S PLAY-READING SERIES PAGE 26 Spring 2019 | Where brick-and-mortar retail still works P. 36 Homeowners criticize roundabout threatening 1927 building Section Two ► Perimeter Business: PCIDs turns 20 ► Q+A with local couple behind Atlanta’s big anime convention The Buckhead Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIPs 30305, 30327 and 30342 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net Exhibitions Director Dan Rooney and curator Sarah Dylla stand in the future home of the Atlanta History Center’s remade 1996 Summer Olympics exhibit. Rooney curated the original exhibit and Dylla is working on the remake. JOHN RUCH Check out our podcasts at ReporterNewspapers.net S ee LOCAL on page 22 BY JOHN RUCH AND EVELYN ANDREWS Local crime concerns have reached a boil – dominating a mayoral town hall and resulting in a list of recommendations from the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods – and most of the heat is gathering around possible changes to the way Fulton County judges make bail decisions. But judges and the district attorney’s of fice are also pushing back on what they say are some incorrect claims and misunder standings, and the BCN altered one of its bail-related proposals after hearing from City Council members. Chief Judge Robert C. I. McBurney of Ful ton County Superior Court says he sees pos Crime concerns focus on changing bail system S ee RETHINKING on page 14 BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net Fresh from debuting a major ex hibit reinterpreting the Cyclorama painting of a Civil War battle, the At lanta History Center is hard at work on a similar “reinvention” of the dis play about another city cultural touchstone: the 1996 Summer Olym pics. The original Olympics exhib it, which opened 10 years after the Games, was largely celebratory and packed with artifacts and memora bilia. The new version – set to open in July 2020 to coincide with the next Summer Olympics in Tokyo – will take a wider view. In part, curators say, that means highlighting lasting legacies like Centennial Olympic Park and the city’s global reputation. It also means giving space to previously un derplayed protests about lack of trans parency and equity, and a time when steps to protect urban wildlife P18 ROBIN’S NEST Mother’s Words of Wisdom P19 The Sandy Springs Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIPs 30327, 30328, 30342 and 30350 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net Check out our podcasts at ReporterNewspapers.net EVELYN ANDREWS Joe Card, the owner of this carriage house at the Mount Paran and Powers Ferry roads intersection is calling for the city to stop a plan to build a roundabout. BY EVELYN ANDREWS evelyn@reporternewspapers.net As the City Springs Theatre Company prepares the final shows of its inaugural season, it’s also prepping for what it expects to be another season of packed shows as it tries to keep up with the enthusiasm and de - mand from the community. The theater company survived major leadership changes at City Springs and has succeeded in implementing one of the com plex’s key initiatives – educational program - ming. “I’ve been involved in nonprofit theatre for 33 years now. I have never, ever in my career seen anything like the level of sup - port and desire for musical theater,” Brandt City Springs theater group prepares for another season of packed houses S ee CITY on page 12 Residents near the intersection of Mount Paran and Powers Ferry roads have rallied against a roundabout expect - ed to be built early next year. They argue the roundabout will mostly help commut ers while negatively affecting their prop - erties, including requiring demolition of a nearly century-old building once used as a country store. “We’d like Sandy Springs to make a pri - ority of residential neighborhoods and not make it a bypass for commuters,” said Aar - on Gill, a homeowner at the intersection. The start of the project is quickly ap proaching, with utility relocation expect - ed to begin in the fall and construction by spring 2020. The city is currently working on securing right of way for the round - about. The $2.5 million project is expect - ed to cost $1.2 million for construction, $800,000 for right of way and $300,000 for design. The city did not respond to a request for comment, but has said the roundabout would improve safety by re - ducing side-impact crashes and installing pedestrian improvements. It’s also expect - ed to reduce congestion, according to the city. S ee HOMEOWNERS on page 14
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