Weekend round-up

Every week I tag items I see on my Google Reader feeds that I don't have time to dig into but that look like things I want to blog about. Usually these are items that deal with the issues this blog is concerned with (politics, real estate development, transportation), but aren't sexy enough to really grab may attention. Friday is the day I force myself to stop putting them off and take a look.

So today's grab bag:

• Mayor Franklin went up to Washington with other big city mayors to lobby for a National Infrastructure Bank. While I am conflicted about the role the federal government should play funding local projects, on a practical level Atlanta needs as much help as it can get to fund infrastructure projects.
  
  
• The National Museum of Patriotism is moving!! I always laugh when I drive by this little shop on Spring Street, because I can't believe it exists. I am going to go there someday, though, as a matter of civic duty and amusement.
  
  
• John Sugg profiles Kasim Reed, who is running for mayor of Atlanta. This is actually a piece that interests me very much, I just can't sit decide what I want to say about Kasim Reed. What I will say about this piece is that I find John Sugg's relentless ranting about Mayor Franklin tiresome. I don't have a problem criticizing the Mayor. But Sugg seems to enjoy it a bit too much for my taste. There is a level of venom to his critique that I find counterproductive. He is a prime example of how CL's schtick gets tiresome.
  
  For now, I'll say this about Sen. Reed - he has done yeoman's work at the Senate, and in my interactions with him when I worked down there he was intelligent, thoughtful, and was not much of an attention seeker. I think he's a great senator, but I am unsure about how I feel about him as a mayor.
  
  
• Richard Florida has the pertinent 'graphs about college towns vs. towns with colleges. It reminds me that I need to go ahead and tackle Emory and AUC's affects on Atlanta.