Friday, September 21, 2012
News / First Slice First Slice 9/21/12: Uruguay, the drug dealer?
Posted by Clay Duda @clayduda on Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 8:39 AM
1. If our polygon-themed interstate system isn’t confusing enough for out-of-towners, a new plan approved by the Department of Transportation yesterday will add variable speed limit signs to parts of I-285 that adjust the interstate’s legal speed depending on the level of congestion. The DOT is starting with the northern half of I-285, but if the initiative pays off expect to see similar signs on other freeways around town in the future.
Oh, and you’ll also be able to zip around the turns on I-285 a little bit faster. The DOT just voted to raise the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph.
2. Is Atlanta dirty? Travel and Leisure thinks so. Earlier this week the magazine crowned the good ol’ ATL the fifth dirtiest in America — right behind Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Orleans, and New York City.
See, this is a world-class city.
[Note: Max Blau actually mentioned the "dirty south" ranking (no pun intended ... okay, maybe a little) on Wednesday. We know you hover over every single word we we spit out of this news factory, so there's no point in repeating things.]
3. The 54-column art installation that sits on the corner of Highland Avenue and Glen Iris Drive is getting a facelift. A crew has been pressuring washing the cinder-block columns over the past few weeks to restore its former grey-ness.
4. The City of Atlanta has okayed the use of nearly $500,000 in taxpayers dollars to expand the EUE/Screen Gems studio in Lakewood, arguing the expense will help create more jobs and drive additional growth. It wouldn’t be the first time the studio got a helping hand from the public. In 2010 Screen Gems received more than $1 million in funds from property taxes in the tax district.
5. In news slightly outside the perimeter, Uruguay has come up with an innovative approach to the war on drugs — become the dealer. Plagued with turf wars and other violence associated with the illegal drug business, the country hopes to curb the blood shed by destroying the market. If the legislation passes this fall, and many reports say there’s a good chance it will, the small South American nation will be home to the first government-run marijuana market in the world.
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