Friday, February 29, 2008
News DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones signs retrofit legislation
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:39 PM
CEO COMMODE: DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones signs the retrofit ordinance as the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper's Sally Bethea, Georgia Conservancy's Shana Udvardy, and Francis Kung'u of the DeKalb Department of Watershed Management look on. In the foreground is Jones' prized brontosaurus tooth/low-flow shower head.
Nothing says progress like toilet legislation. After months of rewrites, negotiations and deferments, the DeKalb County Commission finally approved a controversial ordinance — one DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones calls the first in the state — that would require homeowners in the county to retrofit antiquated plumbing fixtures before they receive water service. The commission approved the ordinance Feb. 26, and Jones signed it this afternoon. If all pre-1993 plumbing fixtures in DeKalb are retrofit, Jones said, 6 million gallons of water per day could be conserved.
The Realtor industry attacked the measure, known as the Retro Plumbing Fixtures Act, when it was first introduced by Jones in November, because it placed the burden of retrofit compliance on their shoulders. With the rewritten and approved ordinance, it is now the homebuyer's responsibility to replace fixtures. About 165,000 homes will be affected by the ordinance. If your home was built after 1993, you have nothing to worry about, as the law already requires that all homes built after this date be outfitted with low-flow fixtures. The ordinance takes effect June 1, 2008, for residential properties. Commercial properties have until Jan. 1, 2009, to comply with the measure.
Properties exempt from the ordinance include:
- Properties advertised for foreclosure
- Homes that are slated to be torn down after purchase
- Homes that are conveyed between spouses and children, either by sale or through wills
- Homes in which, because of historic or architectural limitations, retrofitting would cost more than $1,000 per toilet. For commercial properties, the limit is $2,000 per toilet.
Inside CL CL staff and Victoria's Secret have something in common
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:15 PM
AP:
Victoria's Secret, the lingerie company that introduced the Very Sexy bra, the Fantasy Bra, and the Internet server-crashing fashion show, has become "too sexy" for its own good, its top executive said.
News Jekyll Island bills die in committee
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 3:42 PM
Remember those Jekyll Island bills I wrote about just the other day? Well, they're dead, killed in a committee yesterday afternoon. In a packed hearing held in the catacombs of the state Capitol -- in a room that is literally no larger or accommodating than an airport chapel -- members of the state Senate Economic Development Committee voted to scrap the bills of state Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick, which would have limited development and ensured availability of affordable units to visitors. The legislators who voted against the committee's chucking of the bills were Democrats.
The meeting started off awkwardly enough when Sen. Chip Pearson, R-Dawsonville, coldly asked several anti-Linger Longer ladies to move from the first two rows in the tiny committee room to allow members of the Jekyll Island Authority, the governor-appointed board that oversees the state-protected barrier island, to sit down. "Is this the only room?" asked one of the ladies wearing "Save Jekyll Island" buttons. "This is all we got," Pearson replied. "If you want to wait until next week, we can do that." Not the best way to get things rolling.
Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, has several bills speeding their way through the state House that are related to Jekyll Island. We'll be following those.
News Rep. John Lewis counts the cost of Obama endorsement
Posted by Rodney Carmichael on Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 2:00 AM
Read between the lines.
When Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, says it's harder for him to switch his superdelegate support from Clinton to Obama than it was for him to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with Dr. King in segregated Selma, Alabama over 40 years ago, what he's really saying is:
Don't get it twisted white America, the possibility that a black man could actually be nominated President of the Free World is harder for me to swallow than it is for you.
Lewis isn't the only one among the graying generation of Civil Rights leaders who finds himself at a crossroads. For those who have spent a lifetime relying on alliances with the white liberal establishment to help promote civic change, a potential Obama victory represents a mind-boggling paradigm shift.
It's probably a lot for a sharecropper's son to grasp — especially one as politically indebted to the status quo, i.e. the Clintons, as Lewis.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
News Alliance's 2008-09 lineup includes August Wilson, Andre 3000 (sort of)
Posted by Curt Holman on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 10:01 PM
(Image courtesy of Cartoon Network)It seemed like it was only yesterday (actually, it was Tuesday) that I said “Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf are the two plays of August Wilson’s 20th-century play cycle that have not yet received Atlanta productions." Turns out that both plays will receive high-profile productions during the Alliance Theatre’s newly announced 2008-2009 season.
Randomly Noted If not ‘The West Wing,’ then its candidates?
Posted by David Lee Simmons on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 8:12 PM
(Sony Pictures Classics)
It feels like it’s been a decade since “The West Wing†went off the air, and I’m still waiting for a TV show that matches its blend of wonkish politics and lofty idealism whipped into a compelling and witty dramatic narrative. Maybe that’s because, in 2008, I’m pining for Jed Bartlet as my president, because Martin Sheen portrayed a greatest-hits/composite president that was one part John F. Kennedy, one (small) part Bill Clinton and bits of other Democrats who deserved a closer look but never made it to the White House.
News King, Mellencamp collaboration marks Atlanta's second King musical premiere
Posted by Curt Holman on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 7:12 PM
The big world-premiere musical of the Alliance Theatre’s 2008-2009 season will mark a collaboration between a pair of all-American icons, rock star John Mellencamp and horror novelist Stephen King. Ghost Brothers of Darkland County takes place in 1957 Mississippi and dramatizes an old legend about the deaths of two brothers and a young girl. The Alliance Theatre officially announces the rest of its season Feb. 29.
News About us
Posted by Web Editor on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 4:40 PM
Fresh Loaf is Creative Loafing’s bloggy home for up-to-the-minute local reporting, insightful, funny commentary, and lively conversations with readers about topics of the day.
For more about Creative Loafing click here.
Randomly Noted Garfield Minus Garfield
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 4:16 PM
I'm supposed to be concentrating on a feature story I have to turn in tomorrow.
But I can't stop reading Garfield Minus Garfield, a website that makes Garfield comics funny by simply removing the titular cat.
(Tip of the lasagna tray to Andrew Sullivan)
News Blog: Buckhead Library dodges wrecking ball
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 12:00 AM
The blog Save The Library! reports the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System board has rejected developer Ben Carter's offer to buy the Buckhead Library.
Carter reportedly planned to demolish the library and incorporate its two-acre site into The Streets of Buckhead, his company's $1.2 billion mixed-use luxury development scheduled to open next year.
