Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Now a Halloween Holiday tradition, the parade goes up Clayton and down Washington back to the Ga. Theatre for a party!
This year's Wild Rumpus parade begins at 8pm on Saturday at Clayton and Pulaski. Wear your best costume and join the fun! For more information, click here. If you're short on costume ideas, don't worry. We offer a retrospective of last year's Wild Rumpus Parade. Steal at will. Oh, and if you want to possibly win $5,000, enter Patch's Best Halloween Costume Contest. Who knows? You might win. Subscribe to the Athens Patch Newsletter, like us on Facebook, follow Athens Patch on Twitter
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Records show UGA sends thousands of visitors and dollars to downtown.
What's the top dining and entertainment destination in downtown Athens for guests staying at the Georgia Center? According to records compiled for FY 2012, it's the Square One Fish Company, followed by the Last Resort Grill, Blue Sky, Porterhouse Grill and La Dolce Vita, which is open only for dinner. Square One Fish Company owner Erica Cascio said she was happy about her designation. The campus facility offers free shuttle service to those staying there. In 2012, it made 5,385 trips to restaurants and bars, where the average ticket was $25. There were also 171 shuttle trips to retail shops, where people spent an average of $19. In addition, UGA officials spent $452,308 at four downtown hotels. The most money, close to $200,000, went to …
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Gift shop is another victim of the bad economy, manager says.
A well-loved local business is closing its doors and liquidating its merchandise. Helix, a popular gift shop on Clayton Street, started reducing the price of its items and selling out. "The first wave of sales is today," said Stephen Owen, who has been the store manager for nine years. Mid-morning, the store was filled with customers offering condolences as they shopped for bargains. Everything is 20 percent off. "It's the economy," Owen said. "The gift business has taken a hard hit in the recession." In addition to one-of-a-kind national lines of merchandise, Helix carried local handmade items and tried to support local artists and craftspeople, said Owen. The store carries children's toys and clothes, as well as great cards, kitchen ware…
Monday, May 28, 2012
It's been a quiet day in downtown Athens, Ga., with several stores closed for Memorial Day.
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Monday, May 28, 2012
Were you out and about on Memorial Day? See anything interesting? Share your photos here -- just click on the "upload photos and videos" button.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Notorious murder in downtown Athens remains unsolved.
It happened early one April morning, 20 years ago--a day that began breezy and cool, much like today. A University of Georgia student, on the brink of graduation and a promising advertising career, was robbed, sexually assaulted and strangled in her downtown Athens house, two blocks from campus. In 1992, downtown Athens was transitioning from a sleepy retail center to a bustling residential and entertainment district. The crack trade still thrived at night in some Athens side streets, but it was possible by day to window shop along downtown’s tree-lined main streets and have no idea of any illicit activity on the district’s fringes. In 1985, a couple had restored the old Presbyterian manse at Clayton and Hull streets, as well as a small …
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
They may or may not come to the Armstrong & Dobbs property.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Since news of a possible downtown Wal Mart surfaced last fall, people have fumed and fussed about its proposed arrival. Others have cheered, anticipating increased sales tax revenues and more job opportunities for Athens' unemployed. The developer, Selig Enterprises, has said a 94,000-square foot Wal Mart will anchor their mixed use complex. Many content that size is too large and the design is too car-centric to mesh with downtown's pedestrian feel. Now, according to a story today in the Athens Banner Herald, it appears that Wal Mart hasn't decided whether it will indeed locate on Oconee Street. As evidenced by stores in New York and Portland, Wal Mart has been expanding into urban centers. They have done so by opening approximately 40,…
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Is Athens really open for business?
At its regular monthly meeting this week, the Athens Clarke County Commission heard from constitutents usually absent from City Hall. Black Athenians took the podium to say they were glad at the prospect of Wal Mart coming to town. They look forward to getting jobs--even low-paying jobs are better than no-paying jobs, one said--and to shopping for groceries at an in-town location. Some echoed the sentiments of Athens Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Doc Eldridge and Benson enterprises president Ed Beson, who assured the Commission that "Athens is open for business." There is, as Patch has reported, organized opposition to a Big Box on the edge of a successful, largely locally owned downtown business district. There are at least two websites …
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Where else can you get good information and a cool song?
There’s a lot of information in Athens floating around town and the Internet about the proposed Wal Mart on the edge of downtown Athens. Some of it is useful, some is not. So people who are interested in planning and design decided to build a website that would answer questions, lay out the issues and problems and tell people how to participate. Tony Eubanks, who has been involved in community land use issues for years, worked with attorney Willow Meyer for weeks on the website, before launching it Tuesday night. The splashy website comes with a song by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers and his friends, including Mike Mills of REM and John Bell of Widespread Panic, among others. Others involved include Bertis Downs, Amy Flurry, …
Regardless of how you feel about Wal Mart in Downtown Athens, Patterson Hood's new song is beautiful.
The performance features members of Drive-By Truckers, Widespread Panic, R.E.M., Futurebirds, Hope For Agoldensummer, Lera Lynn, Justified True Belief and The Quick Hooks. Patterson Hood - Lead Vocals, Guitar /Mike Mills - Harmonies and Piano / John Bell - Lead Vocals -/ John Neff - Pedal Steel / David Barbe – Bass / Jay Gonzalez - Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Brad Morgan - Drums / Todd Nance - Percussion / Claire Campbell - Banjo and Harmonies / Lera Lynn - Harmonies / Brannen Miles, Carter King and Payton Bradford - Backing Vocals / Henry Barbe - Electric Guitar
Friday, January 27, 2012
The Commission's Legislative Review Committee studies the issue of handouts.
We've all seen people sitting against a building downtown with a box beside them containing a few dollars dropped by passersby. Maybe we've even given money to some of these folks. Others in our community, residents and visitors alike, have been confronted by people demanding money from them. For some, it's off-putting. For others, it's frightening. Officials with the Athens Downtown Development Authority say that merchants downtown report getting regular complaints from customers about panhandlers. People who are going to an ATM or getting a parking meter ticket are especially uncomfortable. The Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau worries about the effect panhandlers have on visitors. So the ACC Commission's Legislative Review Committee…
Rebecca McCarthy
11:54 am on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Noted! Will make the correction....I should have called them....closed at lunch means just closed for lunch! more ›