You may not have noticed if you live outside of DeKalb County, but the blog scene has exploded there the past year or so. There are several well-written civic-oriented blogs for the disparate parts of the county, some of which are actually breaking news, and many of which are shifting online and offline discussion in their communities.
Here’s a list of what I’ve noticed, which likely isn’t comprehensive. They’re in no particular order. If you write a DeKalb-focused blog that isn’t listed here, please link to it in the comments.
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Dorablog
www.doraville.orgWritten by Joseph G and several other contributors, Dorablog covers city politics in Doraville. Broke the story of the unethical firing of Doraville’s police chief.
(full disclosure: Joseph is a friend of mine who also hosts the GA Politics Podcast on the Georgia Podcast Network, so I’m partial to his work)
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Decatur Metro
www.decaturmetro.comGreat coverage of school board and real estate issues in Decatur.
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inDECATUR
airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/in_decaturWritten by a long-time Decatur resident who often posts old photos and shares anecdotes comparing modern Decatur to the Decatur he knew growing up. Also has great coverage of local issues.
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Dunwoody North Civic Association
dunwoodynorth.blogspot.comCovering Dunwoody, which isn’t a city yet, but may be soon in part because of the efforts of people like DNCA’s John Heneghan. There’s lot of great info on this site about Dunwoody and DeKalb in general.
I met Heneghan at an Atlanta Press Club event last night, and contrary to opinion in some delusional corners of the Internet, he did not come off to me to be a “vile and dastardly coward.”
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Bill Floyd Decatur.com
www.billfloyddecatur.comDecatur Mayor Bill Floyd recently started his own blog. There are only a couple of updates so far, but I’m looking forward to reading more.
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DeKalb Officers
dekalbofficersspeak.blogspot.comThis is a wonderful blog started recently by some DeKalb County police officers who remain anonymous where they voice concerns about management they might be afraid to raise if their identities were tied to the complaints.
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ONE Oakhurst
oneoakhurst.blogspot.comThis blog was formed to discuss the formation of an Oakhurst historic district. Hasn’t been updated in a little while, but still good for background on the OHD discussion.
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Oakhurst Historic District
oakhursthistoricdistrict.blogspot.comAnother blog formed to discuss the Oakhurst Historic District proposal. This one has been updated more recently than ONE Oakhurst.
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DeKalb Young Democrats
www.dekalbyd.comLegislative and organizational news. Recently posted about volunteer opportunities to help tornado victims.
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Broadcast Atlanta (formerly GoDeKalb)
www.broadcastatlanta.comThis is kind of a hybrid between a community group blog, message board and a commercial media site. Aileen Harris, formerly a reporter for a couple of local dead tree publications, runs this along with a partner. She has a vidcast and writes a blog as well. It has recently expanded its scope to cover all of Atlanta, but still has a DeKalb-centric focus.
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State Senator David Adelman’s blog
www.davidadelman.info/davids_blogNot updated terribly often, but sometimes provides some excellent insight into the Legislative process.
I chose to keep this narrowed to blogs that were created specifically to cover DeKalb County, but these aren’t the only blogs that discuss DeKalb issues of course. Many Georgia-oriented political blogs I read (and this blog) mention DeKalb issues from time-to-time.
There are also sites that technically fall outside the definition of a blog, but which utilize some of the same collaborative efforts which make these other blogs worth reading.
One good example of this is the Three Forks Heritage Alliance, which has a traditional web site but organizes and interacts using a Google group and has spread the word about its cause on blogs. Doraville also has several active email groups, and I’m sure other parts of the county do as well.
Most of the activity that I’m aware of comes from the northern and central parts of the county. I haven’t heard a lot from the southern part (Lithonia, Stone Mountain, etc.), but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Please share links if you know about them.






I need to update my blogroll
Thanks for helping me out with new blogs. I agree with Griftdrift. I need to add some new ones. My students have kept me busy of late.
Thanks for the tip of the hat Rusty. It was my pleasure meeting you, James, Spacy, Aileen and a number of my daily reads in person.
Thanks for the mention of inDECATUR, Rusty.
Another is Decatur-DeKalb, which has been around for years and has over 1200 posts. It focuses on “Metro Decatur” (a circle centered on the Old Courthouse with a radius of roughly 6 miles).
http://airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/decaturdekalb/
We keep a fairly decent city-focused blog; albeit literary-centered, at times
blog.wordsmithsbooks.com
-russ
Please add Next Stop … Decatur, a new photo blog showing current and past Decatur photos by my friend Dennis Whitefield.
http://next-stop-decatur-ga.blogspot.com/
David @ inDECAUR
Representative Mike Jacobs who represents the Brookhaven area of DeKalb speaks his mind at http://repjacobs.com and Decatur residents may enjoy the Active Living/Parks & Recreation blog that was started in late February, http://decaturactiveliving.blogspot.com