Covering Buckhead as the Buckhead Patch Local Editor has been a great adventure. I've written about crime, fires, art, politics, sports, commercial real estate, schools, homes, traffic, neighborhoods, the weather, restaurants and interesting Buckhead people. I've learned to juggle Twitter, Facebook, editing video, meeting a payroll and engaging in marketing. Now, I've decided to move on to new challenges and opportunities. I launched Buckhead Patch in December 2010, covering George W. Bush and Laura Bush's book signing at the now defunct Border's bookstore. A veteran journalist, I joined my …
Easter is one of those special days of looking back at the past and looking ahead to the future with renewed hope. Last week, we went to a neighbor's wedding. When the lovely bride was a little girl, she came to our house for an Easter egg hunt. As she celebrated the joy of her marriage, I could remember her smile when she was a child in our back yard finding Easter treats with her sisters and other neighborhood kids. How nice it was to share her and her family's happiness at the wedding and join with other neighbors we've known over the years. Now that my children are grown, Easters are …
Our house is less cluttered now, and that's a good feeling. This fine spring morning, my wife and I loaded up my car with cans of old paint, a jug of antifreeze, outdated medicine and abandoned electronics equipment to take to Livable Buckhead's Eco-Collection event. We also filled a garbage bag with documents for shredding. Those left-over cans from house paintings past have been sitting in the carport storage room for years, but now they're gone. One of the friendly volunteers who helped unload the paint from my car said that it will be remixed and used in new ways. The electronics stuff in…
Some of my warmest golfing memories come from playing at Bobby Jones Golf Course. Named for Atlanta golf legend Bobby Jones, the course opened in 1933 when memories of Jones' Grand Slam remained green. The layout offers some wonderful holes such as the par 3 No. 4, almost a replica of the famed No. 12 at Jones' Augusta National. Back in my playing days, I enjoyed the quirky old course set among some of Buckhead's vintage neigbhorhoods. At the same time, I suffered golfer's purist distress while playing there. The course's ragged condition took away from the game's standards, especially the …
Patch editors give back to their communities through volunteering, especially on "Give 5 Day." For my "Give 5" contribution Thursday, I e-mailed Nancy Jones of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, who said she had a task for me to carry out. The entrance to the nature center's trail along Nancy Creek is being improved, and Nancy said I could come by and help prepare the site for work being done this weekend. As the early afternoon sun warmed away the morning's chill, I walked over to Blue Heron, which happens to be in my North Buckhead neighborhood. When I reached the preserve's Lakemoore pond, I …
Buckhead Patch began operations on Dec. 15, 2010, with coverage of former President George Bush and former first lady Laura Bush appearing at a book signing at Borders. Alas, Borders is no more, one of the many stories we've covered over the year. The 500th AOL-backed Patch site to go live nationally, Buckhead Patch joined a number of Georgia Patches giving in-depth local coverage. In metro Atlanta, other Patch sites celebrating their first birthdays this holiday season include Cascade, Midtown, Sandy Springs, Virginia-Highland, Smyrna-Vinings, East Atlanta, Decatur, Brookhaven, Dunwoody and …
The celebration last week to send off the Aaron's Freedom Riders showed the best of Buckhead, and Atlanta. A congenial group gathered at Cafe Street at Terminus Friday morning to bid the Freedom Riders farewell and godspeed on their 1,035-mile journey to New York City for Sept. 11's 10th anniversary. As the event progressed, those attending realized that they were experiencing one of those special occasions when everything comes together. The event had elements of an old-fashioned patriotic celebration in a small-town square. Folks of different backgrounds and occupations were united: …
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution story the other day referred to that big stalled project in the heart of our community as "The Streets of Buckhead." Yes, even Atlanta's major newspaper refuses to call the project "Buckhead Atlanta," as preferred by San Diego developer Oliver McMillan, which vows to resume work on the development this year. We're glad that Oliver McMillan will bring the project to completion. But with the best of wishes toward the company, we suggest that the development deserves a different, more romantic name. As Tony Wilbert of Wilbert News Strategies pointed out recently …
AJC Political Insider columnist Jim Galloway has touched off a spirited debate among Buckhead political circles with musings that Buckhead will remain within Rep. John Lewis 4th Congessional District during Reapportionment. Some GOP forces want Buckhead represented by Republican congressman Tom Price of the 6th District. Galloway's theory was that the GOP-dominated Ga. Legislature may find it prudent to keep Buckhead Democratic, heading off possible Voting Rights Act challenges and increasing GOP fund-raising opportunities in the "open city" of Buckhead. Rep. Edward Lindsey, the Republican …
I'm not a strong Georgia Bulldogs fan, but I still felt a thrill encountering two UGA standouts this week. Journalists are supposed to be "objective," but sometimes those we cover leave us inspired and motivated. First, I heard longtime football coach Vince Dooley speak at the Buckhead Business Association's quarterly luncheon at 103 West. Later Thursday, I was there as former UGA Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. answered questions in his new role as the iterim superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools. Davis, called upon to put the school system back on course after the CRCT cheating …
The Atlanta Public School System just finished the most tumultuous week in probably its most dramatic year since the days segregation ended. Last week's release of the report on the CRCT cheating scandal was even more devastating than the day in January when the APS was placed on accreditation probation. On a trip to Southern Louisiana last week, I was surprised at being asked repeatedly about the cheating scandal. No one ever questioned me about accreditation probation, but the cheating scandal received such a high level of national attention that the entire country wondered what was going …
Buckhead Patch reaches six months of online publication Wednesday. Our first day online was Dec. 15, 2010, when we covered former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush's book signing at Borders Bookstore. In six months, we have produced 940 articles, including photos and videos. We've also done 700 tweets, gained more than 500 Twitter followers and received nearly 300 Facebook "likes." We have welcomed many new readers, contributors and friends and learned quite a bit about the great community of Buckhead. Alas, Buckhead Borders is no more, but Buckhead has added a number of new …
I didn't believe the Buckhead Borders would ever close, even when the company shut down other stores in Atlanta and announced its bankruptcy. Too many memories. Too many Saturday afternoons spent browsing the shelves of the store. Too many books bought, CDs and cassette tapes taken home, obscure magazines and literary journals stashed away with their poems and essays and short stories. It all meant nothing in the sweep of technological change and volcanic shifts in the American economy. On a lovely Friday afternoon in March, the news came by e-mail and Facebook that my favorite bookstore …
I admire and cheer the Pace girls' amazing run to the state class A semifinals. I commiserate with the Pace boys after their loss to No. 1 Wilkinson County in the "Elite 8" of the state tournament. The two teams have played a central role in Buckhead Patch's sports coverage since our launch on Dec. 15. I interviewed the Pace girls' ace three-point shooter Kaitlyn Dinkins and coach Regina Tate for one of my first Buckhead Patch feature stories after learning that Dinkins had signed to play her college ball at Harvard. We've extensively covered the Pace boys' outstanding season, beginning with…
I had the great honor last week of meeting a group of World War II veterans who showed the highest courage in the D-Day invasion and battling to liberate France. The veterans last Thursday received the French Legion of Honor from Atlanta French Consul General Pascal Le Deunff in a moving ceremony in Buckhead. Walter L. Robertson of Atlanta was among the men whom I talked to about their experiences in World War II. Mr. Robertson, who served in the Navy on the destroyer USS O'Brien, told me about fighting from Europe to the Pacific Theater. He had manned a gun to shell enemy positions during D-…
