Focus on Downtown Development
From the latest issue of the Decatur Focus newsletter.
July/August 2010
New Shop Offers Eco-friendly Apparel
Decatur Screenprint is now open in downtown Decatur at 340 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., next to Decatur CD. The shop offers eco-friendly screenprinting on organic, recycled, and conventional apparel, producing high-quality garments that are both good for the environment and good-looking.
All printing is done in house, using phthalate-free inks. They prefer printing on garments produced by socially conscious manufacturers who treat their employees well and are conscious of their environmental impact.
Decatur Screenprint’s main focus is custom-printed apparel for businesses, schools, and individuals. Most customers order tees for events, family reunions, new fashion lines, and uniforms, and several stores in Decatur now have their apparel printed by Decatur Screenprint. The store also offers T-shirts designed by local artists.
For more information visit www.decaturscreenprint.com.
Rose Squared Gallery & Framing Artworks from Recycled Objects
Tucked neatly near the square at the corner of Clairemont and E. Ponce de Leon, Rose Squared Gallery & Custom Framing is easily passed by without notice. That is until you look into the window and see the little bit of magic and welcoming atmosphere that owner J.D. Isaacs has created for his customers. In addition to the exceptional artworks by various artists, Rose Squared has a full-service custom framing shop and studio space for Isaacs (himself an artist).
Most recently, Rose Squared has transformed the gallery into a showing of artworks using recycled materials and objects. There are magical works of art to behold made from ordinary and extraordinary materials: broken musical instruments, donated by Emil Baran’s Music Showroom (formerly next to Rose Squared), sculpture from melted down metal car parts, throw-away frames turned into beautiful mirrors and sofa trays, and works created from 18th century rice paper practice calligraphy sheets.
Much of the backgrounds and mat boards are also recycled products made from packaging materials and wrappings.
Come by and see what can be done from re-imagining what would ordinarily be thrown away and forgotten. And for the time being, Rose Squared is offering a 20 percent discount on all custom framing. It’s a great time to stop by and bring those nearly forgotten framing projects.
Rose Squared is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at 111 Clairemont Ave. (next door to Debbie’s Caribbean Cafe). Call 404-377-1414 or visit online at www.RoseSquaredGallery.com.
June 2010
Strategic Plan Update:
Translating Our Vision into Goals and Action
The community visioning phase of the city’s strategic plan update concludes on Saturday, June 5, when the last of the session three roundtables are scheduled. Since April, more than 600 Decatur residents have participated in a series of three small group meetings to talk about what they valued about Decatur and to offer suggestions for what the city should be like in 10 years. Facilitators from each group typed up the notes from their sessions and these reports are posted on the www.decaturnext.com website. More than 2,800 bullet points were submitted from session one.
In addition to the regular session meetings, we worked with Jeanne Lee, a teacher at Decatur High School, to gather high school students to provide their input, and we worked with the eighth graders in the Renfroe Middle School Humanities classes to gather their ideas too. All these suggestions will be incorporated into the list of comments.
Consultants are now busy sorting the bullet points into topic areas. They will consolidate the information and prepare a summary report over the summer. We will post a variety of online discussion topics at the Decaturnext website that will focus on some of the more frequently mentioned topic areas. We also plan to hold a series of informal “meet-up” sessions to provide for ongoing conversation.
In August, we will gather again as a large group to celebrate our hard work, find out about what we learned and meet the planning team that will help us translate our vision into a strategic plan with goals and action steps to direct our work for the next decade. Check in on our progress at www.decaturnext.com and find out about upcoming meetings and online discussion topics. A very special thank you to all the many volunteers who came forward to serve as facilitators and to all of you who gave of your time to attend and participate in the roundtable discussions. It has been said that “a community is only as good as its citizens choose to make it” and you have proven that you intend to do your part to help maintain this special place we all call home.
May 2010
Community Fitness Campaign
The Decatur Active Living Board is hard at work developing opportunities to encourage residents to get out and get moving. Recently the board published a Decatur Walking Tour brochure that includes a variety of walking routes around the city. A copy of this brochure is available at the Decatur Recreation Center or at City Hall and can also be found at
here.
Board members are working with Active Living staff to measure walking distances between a variety of community activity centers around the city. Distances will be translated into steps and posted on signs to encourage folks to consider walking instead of driving. Want to know how many steps it is from the square to the post office; between Glenlake Park and downtown Decatur; from the square to the cemetery; or from the Oakhurst business district to McKoy Park? Look for these signs over the next few months and “Walk There! Decatur.”
The Active Living Board is also working with the organizers of the Atlanta Corporate Challenge to organize a Team Decatur to participate. This 5K run/walk is a fun event sponsored by Kaiser Permanente in coordination with famed marathon runner Jeff Galloway and begins and ends at Turner Field. This activity includes a get fit focus and an organized training program that allows even beginners to get in shape and participate in the 5K walk or run. Usually targeted at individual businesses, the Decatur effort will encourage businesses and residents to join us for this community training program.
Training for Team Decatur kicks off on the square on July 26, so make plans to join us. Check out the Atlanta Corporate Challenge website,
www.kpcorporaterunwalk.com, to get a jump on your fitness training. Check in at the
Active Living Blog 231 Sycamore Street for updates in coming weeks.
Strategic Plan Kick Off
Decatur’s strategic plan kicked off in April with more than 600 people registering to share their vision for Decatur in 2020. Over the next few weeks, participants will meet in small roundtable groups of eight to 10 people to talk together about issues and ideas for our city. The community visioning effort wraps up in early June. Consultants will analyze all the input and prepare a final report that will be shared with the community in August.
A team of planners will be introduced at the final celebration and will work with the community throughout the fall to translate our visions into concrete action steps that we will follow for the next decade. Periodic updates can be found at
www.decaturnext.com. A special thanks to all of you who volunteered and are taking the time to contribute your thoughts and ideas.
April 2010
Strategic Plan Sign Up – ‘Where to Next, Decatur?’
The City of Decatur was founded in 1823, which means we celebrate our 200th anniversary in 2023 – only 13 years from now! What do you give a great city getting ready to enter its third century? You sign up and participate in the strategic planning process!
We are developing a 10-year vision for Decatur and figuring out what steps to take to achieve this vision. We’ll be looking ahead to the year 2020. So what do you want our city to be like, what do you want it to be known for 10 years from now? In other words, “Where to Next, Decatur?” Don’t miss your chance to have a say.
The kick-off meeting for the strategic planning process is Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m., at the Holiday Inn Conference Center. It’s important that you go to www.decaturnext.com and complete a registration form so that we can assign you to a discussion group before the kick-off meeting. You will meet with your small discussion group three times for a few hours in May and early June. Three meetings isn’t too much to ask for a city moving toward its 200th birthday. We hear too often “no one asked for my input.” Well, we’re asking and we hope you will participate.
Please take a minute to visit the website and complete a registration form by April 9 if possible. If you do not have access to the Internet call 678-553-6584 and we’ll send you a form in the mail. Tell your friends and invite your neighbors and make plans to join us for the kick-off event on April 15. Parking will be free and for you procrastinators we’ll even run your tax return over to the Post Office so you can attend.
Shop Local
We can’t say it enough and Decatur’s citizens have responded. Thanks to all of you who have helped pull our local retailers and restaurant owners through some bleak times. Now that spring has arrived, let’s celebrate by getting out there and continuing our support. Some of us who have been around long enough, remember when downtown Decatur and Oakhurst were closed up tight after 5 p.m. on weekdays and there was little activity on the weekends. We still find ourselves pleasantly surprised by the number of pedestrians out in the evenings and on Saturday and Sunday. We have come a long way.
So enjoy this return of warm weather and sunshine, walk to your favorite local business, visit with friends and neighbors and celebrate this special place that we call home. Stop in and say hello to the owners of Wild Oats and Billy Goats, the new folk art gallery at 112 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. We have several other exciting projects in the works so stay tuned for new business announcements next month.
March 2010
Decatur Business Activity Shows Signs of ‘Spring’
New business openings downtown and better holiday sales reported by retailers suggest the local economy may be poised for an upturn.
Retail and Restaurant Update
In recent weeks some Decatur residents have expressed concern over business closings – particularly in the downtown area. As we explained in the January/February Focus, we all hate to see a business close but Decatur is not alone in feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Relatively speaking our vacancy rates are better than the metropolitan Atlanta average of 10.7 percent. The good news is that retail and restaurant interest in Decatur remains high. Downtown Decatur retailers reported that 2009 ended better than 2008 and most saw an uptick in sales during the holiday season.
The new gallery Wild Oats and Billy Goats is scheduled to open this month in the By Hand South space. This new folk art gallery is owned by two local residents and will be a great addition downtown. The Farm Burger moving into the Voila space has a focus on organic food and is a great fit for Decatur. If you haven’t visited Mac Magee’s, the new Irish pub on the square, March is the perfect month to give them a try. A new film production company called Pogo Pictures is opening in the space above Parker’s on Ponce.
All of these businesses fit into our recruitment strategy: retailers who specialize in locally produced, one-of-a-kind and environmentally sustainable products; restaurants that are chef driven, environmentally conscious and have a commitment to locally grown food products; and commercial tenants who are involved in creative business ventures. Each new business opening moves us closer to our goal.
So, it isn’t all doom and gloom – just requires us to be a bit more creative in our recruitment efforts. Decatur of all places has a unique ability to survive and thrive even in the worst of times. So please do our existing retail and restaurant businesses a favor – continue to support them and spread the word throughout metro Atlanta that Decatur is alive and well and still has a large number of wonderful, locally owned retail and restaurant businesses.
In the meantime, the City of Decatur will continue to support existing retail and restaurant businesses through our economic development efforts. We print the popular Shopping, Dining and Services Guide twice each year and include every retail, restaurant and service business in the city at no charge. The directory includes a map of the city’s commercial districts and our calendar of events. We distribute the directory through local businesses and the Holiday Inn but also place it in welcome centers around the state and at key metropolitan Atlanta tourism locations.
We host quarterly meetings with our retail and restaurant businesses to talk about issues specific to them. Last month we presented a program on shoplifting and our next program will provide tips on creating attractive window displays. We also work with them to determine the best advertising sites for their customer base and help underwrite the cost of these ads to make them more affordable to our local businesses.
The Decatur Beer Festival Committee contributes to our advertising fund each year as a way of supporting local business. The wayfinding sign system installed throughout our city helps direct visitors to our local businesses. The many festivals, concerts and special events held downtown are another way to market our commercial districts. These are just some of the ways we work to support our existing businesses. We work to attract potential customers to Decatur, but it is up to businesses to get them in the front doors – and get them to return.
Strategic Plan Update
In 2000, the City of Decatur adopted a Strategic Plan that included a vision for the decade and outlined the important steps needed to achieve the vision. It was a successful effort that allowed us to accomplish more than 85 percent of the goals and projects we identified. Now it’s time to create a new 10-year vision and strategic plan and we need your help. Information is available in this newsletter about how you can sign up to participate.
We are asking for a small investment of your time to help us create a community vision for our future. We will kick off this visioning process on April 15 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center and we want as many of you as possible to joins us. We also need volunteers to serve as facilitators for the small group sessions we are planning between April and June. If you are an experienced facilitator or are interested in being trained as a facilitator, please volunteer.
December 2009
The Importance of Planning
One of Decatur’s strengths is its commitment to planning and involving residents in creating these useful blueprints that lead our community forward. The city is currently considering intersection improvements for the railroad crossings at both the Candler Street and McDonough Street intersections. Public input sessions have been held and the design team is meeting with key stakeholders in the area.
An online survey will help gather additional public input as we work to find ways to improve safety and accessibility for all modes of transportation. The city received funding through the Georgia Department of Transportation’s TE program to fund improvements at these two intersections.
Cultural Arts Master Plan
In another type of planning activity, the city recently kicked off a Cultural Arts Master Plan that will help us inventory existing cultural arts facilities and programs, identify art facility and program needs and determine a strategy for responding to these needs. Much of this effort depends on establishing and strengthening partnerships and assuring the efficient and effective use of existing resources.
A series of public input sessions and targeted stakeholder meetings is underway and additional public input sessions are scheduled. For those unable to attend a meeting, an online survey will soon be posted and several questions will be posted on the Open City Hall site on the city’s website. When the plan is finalized next spring, the document will help identify action steps and potential partnership opportunities and will be a useful tool to support possible grant applications. We encourage you to participate in this planning effort and follow the progress of the plan on the city’s website.
Strategic Plan Update
In early 2010, the city will begin an update of the 2000 Strategic Plan. This process will include a community-wide visioning effort designed to involve a broad cross section of Decatur’s citizens to help define a vision and plan to carry us forward for the next decade. The visioning process will focus on what citizens value, what issues are important, and will outline the development of a strategic plan to direct the work program for the city over the next decade.
We are working to design a combination of face-to-face meeting opportunities and technology options that will expand our ability to educate and inform. The initial public input process will take place over three or four months early next year and will be followed by the development of the new strategic plan. The planning process takes the vision identified during the public input effort and translates it into a series of action steps. This six-month process will continue to include public input as we use the vision to refine goals and assign responsibilities for critical projects.
Someone once said that a community is only as good as its citizens choose to make it. We hope that you will take every opportunity to participate in the different community planning and visioning opportunities that are underway or scheduled to begin early next year.
Happy Holidays to Each of You!
Take the time over the next few weeks to walk around downtown Decatur and Oakhurst to enjoy the holiday lights and support our local business owners. Challenge yourself to find small gifts with meaning that are purchased locally this holiday season.
If you did not get the opportunity to donate or volunteer for the Season of Giving program this month, make a pledge to volunteer for the MLK weekend service project in January. These opportunities to work together to help our fellow residents are what makes Decatur such a special place – so take advantage of the opportunity to get involved.
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October 2009
Share the Road
Decatur is hard at work implementing a “complete street” concept to assure that our transportation network keeps all users in mind – including pedestrians of all ages and abilities, bicyclists, automobiles and public transit vehicles. Information about the complete street concept, the city’s community transportation plan and specific improvement projects planned for construction can be found at www.decaturga.com.
As we work to improve sidewalks, install bicycle lanes, upgrade signals, install pedestrian crossings and invest in infrastructure improvements outlined in the plan, let’s keep in mind that everyone using the transportation system must obey the rules to create a truly safe “complete street” network in our community.
There are basic traffic laws that we should all know but often it’s more about common sense and following the Golden Rule. We are working on a simple reminder card for all of our various transportation users and will launch an education program later this year. Here are a few simple reminders:
1. Automobile drivers must stop for pedestrians in cross walks and remain stopped until the pedestrian has reached the other side.
2. Pedestrians crossing at signalized intersections must obey the traffic signal. They may not walk on a green left turn arrow. The left turn arrow is important for clearing the intersection of automobiles and allowing the intersection to work efficiently. Wait until the light turns green and/or the “walk” signal is illuminated.
3. Cars turning right on a green traffic signal must yield to pedestrians crossing on a green light. Before turning right on a green light, always look first for pedestrians getting ready to step off the curb to cross.
4. Cyclists must obey the rules of the road, including stopping at all four-way stops and obeying all traffic signals – and please use your hand signals when turning.
5. Cyclists overtaking another cyclist or a pedestrian should call out “passing on right” or “passing on left” to alert the person ahead that they are passing.
6. Cyclists younger than 13 are allowed to ride on sidewalks but should always yield to pedestrians. The same goes for skateboarders. It is unsafe to weave through pedestrians – particularly older residents – and remember to alert pedestrians up ahead that you are approaching.
We are working with DeKalb County to upgrade both traffic and pedestrian crossing signals throughout the city. We continue to install sidewalks and mid-block crossings and are working with DOT to expand school zone designations on major roadways. In the meantime let’s all work on following the rules and treating others with respect.
Valet Parking on the Square
Don’t forget to try out the valet parking service offered downtown on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights on N. McDonough behind the bandstand. The service is $3 so it’s an inexpensive option for parking around the square. We have plenty of parking opportunities for those who know where to find it. For information on downtown parking decks and parking deck rates, visit the city’s website.
Creative Community
Thanks to all who submitted your six-word descriptions of Decatur. We have some very talented folks out there. Thanks to the Decatur Metro Blog for participating too. Together we generated more than 150 six-word entries. We’re sharing a few here and will continue to post a few each month. We’ll also post all the entries on the city’s website soon. Here are a few of our favorites:
• Just like home without the relatives
• Decatur. Where your neighbors are your friends
• Inside the Perimeter. Outside the box.
• Decatur. Trendy brews, comfortable shoes, Subarus
• Decatur. There’s a festival for that.
• Take a stroll. Feed your soul.
• Easy to love. Hard to leave.
• Expected a lot but got more.
More next month . . .
September 2009
Shop Locally. It Counts!
First, we want to say a heartfelt goodbye and thank you to Brenda Leder and By Hand South. The Decatur business community is very much like a family and our business owners are friends as well as colleagues. Brenda certainly has earned her retirement after more than 20 years in retail and we wish her all the best as she begins a new chapter in her life. However, we will miss her support and her beautiful store. If anyone is interested in continuing the By Hand South legacy, Brenda would be happy to consider the possibility.
I know most Decaturites don’t need much encouragement to shop locally because they understand the value of supporting the local community. And most would agree that our local shops and restaurants make Decatur a great place to work and live. There’s little doubt that local businesses improve the quality of a community, but it’s hard to quantify that value. That being said, we discovered an organization that creatively sums up the quantitative value of shopping locally. It’s called the 3/50 Project. What does it stand for? Pick 3. Spend $50. Save your local economy.
In other words, pick three local businesses that you want to support and spend a total of $50 at those businesses each month. If half the employed population in the nation spent $50 every month in locally owned businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays local.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t shop at national chains. Instead, the 3/50 Project encourages consumers to spend $50 of their budget each month at three locally owned shops or restaurants. So next time you need a last minute birthday card or gift, stop by one of Decatur’s gift shops or boutiques or think of buying a gift card to a local restaurant.
To learn more about the 3/50 Project visit
www.the350project.net.