CrossRoadsNews, September 10, 2011

Page 1

COMMUNITY

SCENE

YOUTH

Business owners and other interested parties have been gathering to talk about the future that awaits the Stonecrest area. 3

The elephants won’t the only act seeking to entertain guests when the Cole Brothers Circus comes to Conyers. 6

GreenforestMcCalep senior Moses Johnson not only leads her team on the court, she also starts games by singing the national anthem. 8

What’s next?

Big-time performers

Double duty

EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER

Copyright © 2011 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.

September 10, 2011

Volume 17, Number 19

www.crossroadsnews.com

Town center makeover being studied for city of Lithonia By Donna Williams Lewis

Deborah Jackson peers into empty store front in downtown Lithonia.

years. Some of the town’s 2,100 residents believe a new project under way can help bring the transformation downtown Lithonia desperately needs. “Blueprints for Successful Communities,” a Georgia Conservancy growth management program, is partnering with Lithonia to re-examine and refine visions of the past and boil them down into an implementable strategy. A team of Georgia Tech graduate students recently began the nine-month research effort led by professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, former director of Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture. Jones is co-author of “Retrofitting Sub-

Walter Smith would like to not be the only bright spot, literally, in downtown Lithonia on weekend nights. After Wayfield Foods shuts down at 9 p.m., the only sign of life in the one-acre city is along a short strip of old brick buildings on Main Street that houses the Smith brothers’ arcade, Gaming Xperience, open Thursday through Saturday from 4 to 10:30 p.m. Smith says the city needs some sit-down places and some restaurants. “There’s nothing here for people to walk around and walk to,” he said this week. Anchored by a huge eyesore of a shopping plaza, Lithonia’s beleaguered business district has been studied by many over the Please see LITHONIA, page 4

Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews

Piece of World Trade Center finds home in DeKalb Sculpture to honor first responders

Artist/sculptor Curtis Miller works on the base for a sculpture of a phoenix rising from the ashes that was fashioned from a peice of steel from the World Trade Center.

By Donna Williams Lewis

A piece of the World Trade Center is coming to DeKalb. The steel, which was part of the Twin Towers that crumbled in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the national icon, is becoming the centerpiece of a sculpture that will adorn the DeKalb Police Tucker headquarters. On Sunday, Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the attack, I-285 through DeKalb County will be closed from Memorial Drive to LaVista Road while a caravan of public safety vehicles – on the ground and in the air – ushers the centerpiece of a 9-11 memorial sculpture to its permanent home, where it will pay permanent homage to the victims of the attack and honor America’s resolve to rise above acts of terror. The steel will leave the Bobby Burgess Building on Camp Road at Memorial Drive at 8 a.m. The ceremonial procession will end at the DeKalb Public Safety Headquarters, at 1950 W. Exchange Place in Tucker, where the steel will be installed into a sculpture of a phoenix rising from the ashes. A 21-gun salute and remarks by county CEO Burrell Ellis and public safety officials will follow. Reflecting Wednesday on the terrorist attacks, Ellis said they “changed the way we live.” “It’s given us an appreciation for the freedoms that we have here and a greater sense of appreciation for the role of all of our first responders – those people who are willing to put others first and themselves second,” Ellis said. DeKalb firefighters and police officers

Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews

joined the community in raising about $30,000 for the memorial, which was designed by artist/sculptor Curtis James Miller. Miller was at the Public Safety Headquarters on Thursday, working with 30 volunteers to put finishing touches on the memorial site, a built on a 52-foot circle. They were setting the flagpole, applying steel lettering and planting shrubbery. Educational plaques including flight information from each of the hijacked airplanes and a timeline of the hours leading up to and during the attacks are part of the display. The project began with DeKalb firefighter Doug Harms, 32, who received the piece of World Trade Center steel in New York this

summer. Harms had expected a small piece that might be put on display in-house. But the piece was large, about 24 inches by 16 inches. Harms’ ideas for it grew exponentially. He began to envision an outdoor memorial. He looked to the Savannah College of Art and Design for a sculptor. A professor there knew exactly who to recommend. Miller, a Chicago native, had just graduated from SCAD. He had been a Marine firefighter. He was all about metal sculpture. Harms called Miller, who was preparing to move away from Atlanta. He was going to North Carolina, or maybe back to Chicago. He wasn’t sure where. Miller easily recalls the phone call from Harms that changed his plans and may well

have changed his life. “He said, ‘It’s just me. No money. Just me and an idea,’ ” Miller said. Miller, who had no money either, replied, “Perfect, we’ll make it work.” Asked what part of town he’s from, Miller stopped and thought for a second. That’s because he really couldn’t say. It turns out that while Miller has spent the past four months working on this project, he’s been sleeping “wherever there was a couch to sleep on.” “This could not have happened,” he said, “without my friends.” For more information about Miller and his work, see his blog, http://dekalb911memorial.wordpress.com/ or visit curtisjamesmiller.com.


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