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Atlanta and Fairlie Poplar has suffered a big loss.  Icon Bar and Bistro has gone out of business.  Losing Icon is sad on at least three fronts.
First, Icon was the first new long running upscale restaurant the neighborhood had seen in a long time.  The food was good, the service was friendly, and it was a step up from Ted’s, Sidebar or Landmark.  It was key to keeping the professional set downtown for dinner.  It was nouvelle cuisine with a soul food sensibility, but was a much better value than Justin’s.  The neighborhood will be less friendly without it.
Second, the restaurant was locally owned and operated.  It was a strong upscale African American owned restaurant in a city where African Americans often look ‘upscale places of our own’.  The Morehouse Alumni Association used it as a happy hour location for their members. 
Third, it was a venue for live Jazz downtown.  There are not enough.  With the Jazz Loft twice gone (that space is becoming Agatha’s ) live jazz opportunities are hard to come by.  Icon gave the sophisticated music fan a chance and several groups a place to play. 
Hopefully, some smart restaurantuer will grab the space quickly and put something new and fresh in there.  In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if BED-Atlanta
can pick up some of Icon’s traffic and make a go of it on Marietta street. 

As proof, try this Google Search:  “The best thing about Atlanta is“…  The results are not pretty.  There is no true best thing about Atlanta.  Unlike New York, with its theater scene or Chicago with restaurants and museums,  Atlanta seems not to have a sense of pride about itself or a best prominant feature.
The search for “The worst thing about Atlanta” leads of course to traffic.  However, there is a bigger problem which is that Atlantans don’t have a sense of themselves and hence have no sense of pride in Atlanta. 
While the ‘Every Day is Opening Day’ slogan is good for attracting visitors to the city, it’s not making people proud to be an Atlantan.  They’re not happy to live here…  So what’s the answer?  Part of it is happening now.  Density will bring intensity of loyalty… if it’s done right.  The Atlanta Regional Commission also needs to dedicate itself to an Atlanta focus.  They need to take a stronger hand in strengthening the stronger central core and helping to induce new companies to move here. 
Mostly, however, it’s us.  We need to think of ourselves as Atlantans, take pride in our successes, and participate in local events. The more pleasure people get in local events the more they will change the center of their world view.

Did you know that Atlanta has a Museum of Contemporary Art?  MOCA is currently spread out between a midtown location and a downtown location.  They should consolidate.  MOCA needs it’s own building in Fairlie Poplar.  A free standing museum in that area would both boost the museum, help the neighborhood continue to bloom, and strengthen downtown.  It would also bring attention to some of the galleries that are already in the area and help facilitate the a change in people’s perceptions. 
How would a building be funded?  Well, we know there is at least $32 million that won’t be going to celebrate stock cars that is available as seed money for such a project.  Matching fund can be found and Kia, who has announced they are building a new plant in Georgia, can begin their corporate citizenship by helping to create such a project. 
Those redeveloping the Wyncoff Hotel might also consider helping to fund the project as a decent art museum with in walking distance will make their hotel more attractive! 
If we’re not going to be the Red Neck Mecca, we should be the cultural Mecca of the South East and a full museum of contemporary art would go a long way toward that. 

Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell has been convicted on three felony counts of tax evasion.  A mixed race jury acquitted him on racketeering and bribery charges.  Immediately, however, cries came out that Campbell was prosecuted because he was a successful black mayor. 
This is, of course, silly.  So lets point out a couple things:
1) Al Capone was convicted and sentenced not on murder or racketeering,
but on tax evasion.  Capone too said his prosecution was persecution
because he was Italian.  Campbell and Capone both have something
in common.  They broke the law.  That’s why they were convicted.
2) Some noted Atlantans have alleged that there is broad conspiracy to prosecute African Americans who get elected or appointed to high office.  Really?  Has anyone indicted Douglas Wilder recently?  Has Colin Powell been under investigation?  Locally, the Attorney General of Georgia,The Labor Commissioner, and the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court  are all Black & have a history voting as Democrats.  Where are the feds?  Is David Scott under attack?  Missed that
one.  Again, it’s not your skin color, it’s breaking the law. 
3)  Andrew Young said that Whites would see Campbell a guilty and Blacks as innocent.  I hate to disagree, but jury was a majority African American.  They found him guilty of committing tax fraud.  I also think many African Americans have seen the difference Mayor Franklin has made and want a cleaner administration. 
That being said… there may be more to it than that.
To some degree, being a big city mayor, is to live with the possibility of corruption all the time.  One might even venture to say that citizens would prefer a little corruption if it means that the city runs more smoothly. 
Maynard Jackson is a great case in point.  There have been underground allegations for years that he did not run for a fourth term because corruption charges would have followed his administration.  However, there can be no doubt that he was one of Atlanta’s seminal Mayors.  He was willing to get a little dirty to get a lot done for Atlanta.  He was better than both Andrew Young and Bill Campbell. 
Andrew Young was almost certainly personally cleaner.  Andrew Young also cared about the city, but governing is a dirty business in which deals are made and less was accomplished on Young’s watch than most citizens desired. 
Bill Campbell is the opposite.  He cares far more about Bill Campbell and not enough for the people who live in city.  In lining his own pockets with speaking fees and other measures, Campbell put his own financial welfare ahead of the city’s and history will frown on that. 
Where then, does that leave Sister-Mayor?  Shirley Franklin is a better Mayor and is almost certainly a more honest person than Campbell.  She also gets more done than Young.  It will be interesting to see if her adherence to stricter ethical codes continues to inspire confidence in the business and residential communities so that she can get a stronger cultural and transportation community. 
If she does, her legacy may shine even brighter than Jackson’s. 

Once again, the AJC tries to pretend there could be some silver bullet solution to solve the woes of Underground Atlanta. They ask the question in their blog: What’s the solution for Underground?

Well, the nightclub thing didn’t work. What should we try next?

This was my answer:

If you walk through Underground while it’s raining, you’ll find dozens of buckets catching the water leaking through the infrastructure. Fixing the leaks would be a start.Go to the food court and there’s some jerk at a Chinese to-go place yelling at everybody that Underground is unsafe, and by the way, try this orange chicken, hey hey are you deaf. Throwing the jerk out would be another good step.

Walking along Lower Alabama Street, you’re inundated with a huge crowd of carts. I’m not sure which is more difficult — navigating around the carts, or navigating around the other people who are trying to navigate around the carts. Has the fire marshall seen this crowded setup? Get rid of half those carts, and walking through Underground will be a better experience.

Open up the space above the food court to offices — restaurants and retail cannot survive there.

The tunnel between the 5 Points station and Underground looks much bettter than it used to. But as long as those fans are there, I’ll still refer to it as the “ghetto tunnel.” Put in a more subtle ventillation system and that will be an improvement.

There used to be plans to build apartments above Upper Alabama. Scrapping those plans was not a good idea. I don’t care what they think the market looked like at the time. Take a risk, for once, or else nothing will happen except Atlanta re-hashing this issue five years from now.

The surrounding area needs a facelift, but there’s not much Underground can do about that without the help of city officials, developers, and MARTA.

MARTA should take the whole ugly top off the Five Points station and allow a developer to build a couple of mixed-use buildings right there on top of the station. The center of a major transit system should be a center of activity, not an architectural statement of modernist crap.

The plaza between 5 Points station and Marietta Street, aka “Despair Alley,” needs flowers.

There are plenty more things to be done in the area, and there are some good people trying to work out downtown’s issues. The folks at Central Atlanta Progress have a great deal of energy and optimism for downtown. Having once met Dan O’Leary, I can certainly say the same about him.

There are two sad things about downtown that will continue to serve as a drag to the area more than the perception of crime. First, there are not enough people with the same energy and optimism for downtown. To get the perception issue out of the way, Central Atlanta Progress should stop trying to defend downtown and start engaging the public more toward a shared vision of downtown’s future.

The second drag for downtown is the lack of market leaders. There are too many market followers in the development community. Before the Olympics, no developers could be found to build any residential units in the area. The developers believed there was no market for residential units downtown, ignoring the fact there there were hardly any units to speak of in the first place. Naturally, there was no market to live there because there was no supply of housing. With the opening of the Healy, Muse’s, and others, developers began to realize the market potential, which remains unmet. Consider this:

• Sembler keeps building faux-urban crap with huge parking lots in their intown developments.
• Wayne Mason wants to build huge condo buildings in Piedmont Park, and provide 2.5 to 3 parking spaces per unit.
• Atlantic Station is built on top of a huge parking deck, and they gave MARTA trouble for trying to re-route the #10 bus to go through their development. (To their credit, Atlantic Station may be pushing for a “Midtown Loop” when the Atlanta Streetcar is built.)
• Surface parking lots are still in abundance in the downtown area.

My conclusion: Atlanta’s developers remain a bunch of wussy dinosaurs. They joined with a number of prominent local officials and paid the AJC to publish a boldly weak statement on what Atlanta’s future should look like. (The officials were later purchased by the roadbuilding lobby.) Since October 2004 (when the report was published), developers have continued to act in their market-following ways. It’s time to take a risk, my friends: stop building parking lots and start rebuilding downtown. You’ll profit from it, and I’ll be happy for you.

Kim Patrick Bitz, Executive Director of the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts (disclosure: I’m a staff member there) put forward this idea as a piece of the puzzle to revitalize downtown:

Greetings,Here is one answer to the question of what is the next idea now that the NASCAR museum is out of the Atlanta picture, as discussed in the Tuesday, March 7 business section of the AJC.

I offer a suggestion that may not be the mega-attraction everyone is looking for but is a big idea all the same. It aligns perfectly with both Mayor Franklin’s leadership in enhancing quality of life, and the work being done on the City’s new Cultural Plan. It’s an idea I suggested to a dozen Atlanta leaders back in August 2002.

The soon-to-be vacant World of Coke should be turned into the Atlanta Center for the Arts… or perhaps Coca~Cola Center for the Arts. Considering the historical significance of the building to Coke, they may be interested in keeping their legacy attached to the facility.

The building would house several mid-size performance venues, which are desperately needed by the performing arts companies of Atlanta. (Our region is in fine shape with current and under construction large venues.) The lobbies would be showplaces for the visual arts. The ground floor would house a retail store featuring the artwork of Atlanta youth, like the Gallery 37 store in the heart of downtown Chicago. Parts of the building and perhaps the railroad depot too would be used for arts education.

The emphasis would be on, but not exclusive to new work. This facility might even be the home for Chris Manos’ dream of establishing the birthplace for new American musical theatre. That would be a program admired and envied around the nation, and Atlanta would become one of the premier centers for musical theatre in the world.

Converting the World of Coke to the Atlanta Center for the Arts would be significant and tangible evidence that the public and private sectors are ‘walking the walk’ in their recognition that arts & culture are a vital component of our region’s economy, and a vital thread in the social fabric of our community.

Can you think of a more perfect place to have such a center than right across the street from our state capitol and within blocks of hundreds of state and local officials? It would indeed be a powerful statement of the City of Atlanta’s renewed commitment to the arts. Before considering importing the art of Cirque du Soleil as an attraction, we should first showcase Atlanta’s arts. Why brand Atlanta with something other than our own large and richly diverse arts that reflect our community’s cultural soul.

Every night when I step out our office door to head home, I see the World of Coke a half-block away. In seconds, what I see is transformed into a vision of an arts center filled with applause for performances, and discussion on works of art in the lobby galleries and youth art store. Public art pieces fill the plaza outside. I see a showcase for the creative heart of Atlanta, in the heart of Atlanta. I hope you see it too.

Kind regards,
-kim

MARTA has installed the Breeze Card system in its stations.   The immediate side effects of this are a good thing. MARTA will not have as many fare jumpers because the new fare gates are higher and more automated.  Instead, MARTA can use its in-station personnel to help keep things cleaner, safer, and more customer service oriented.  That’s something MARTA needs.  Whether the Breeze Card is good for the random MARTA rider is more of an Aquinian question.  On its own the Breeze card is neither good nor evil, only to purpose to which MARTA will put it makes it so. 
This could be a great thing.  If MARTA uses the breeze card in such a way to simply make things more convenient, it will be wonderful.  If people can buy day passes, 3 day passes and so forth, the Breeze card will improve ridership.  It would also be great if people who bought large purchases received a discount on the value of their rides in the way that those buying 20 tokens now receive a 15% percent discount. 
What’s sadly more likely is that MARTA will try to use this system to move to a distance based fare schedule.  One good thing about MARTA is that no matter where you’re going, the price is the same.  Everyone knows the price and it’s the same regardless of where you travel.  This lets people who could drive decide not to.  If the price from Sandy Springs to Omni goes from the current $1.75, to say $2.50, it will make driving far more cost competitive.   In order to remain strong, MARTA must capture the marginal markets; those people who might drive or take MARTA.  Distance based fares will also make parking at in town stations more crowded.  Imagine what the parking wars will be like at Lindbergh if riding to Lenox, Brookhaven, and Doraville goes up 50 cents a ride. 
Lastly, the people who could really be punished are those who can least afford it.  People who ride buses are going to get hit when they get on the bus and when they get on the train.  MARTA needs to make a commitment to the public that the installation of the fare system will increase efficiency and that the value of the efficiency will be passed on to the riders. 

Though a day late and a dollar short, let us all raise a glass to The Brandy House.  The Brandy House was a great Sandy Springs watering hole.   Just moments from Chastain Park, it was a classic bar.  It was Manual’s for the Chastain community, and now it’s gone.  Closed.  Done.   Very sad indeed. 
It was a neighborhood joint, unpretentious, basic bar food and atmosphere.  Families met there.  Grandmothers bought their grand daughters their first drinks.  Galloway seniors snuck into get a burger. 
It was also a performance space and that made it memorable.  For two months, the Brandy House had possibly one of the best house bands humanly imaginable.  Jeff Sipe, Steve Cunningham, and Adam Nitti played some of the best sets the city has ever heard.  In one case, the first set was a continuous jam with completely original themes, then the second set was a continuous jam moving from cover to cover.  The vibe of the Brandy House made that possible.  Open, inviting, and worth relaxing. 
Brandy House also had a house improv troupe.  The Comedy Dogs ran there for years and several of their alumni still perform around town today.  There are not a lot of these waterholes left.  Fuzzy’s, thank heavens, survives.  As does the Bucket Shop (a cousin of the Brandy House).  Manuel’s forever remains an institution.  Still losing Brandy House is a blow.  People will go to 5 Seasons instead (and that’s a great place), but it won’t be the same.