I learned a few new things stepping out early on a blustery New Year’s Day. One is that my dog does wonders for educating me just by drawing people to us. The other is that there is a project and a website called the Little Wonders Project. As I walked past a parked yellow school bus between Little Five Points and the Freedom Park bike path, I heard a female squeal, ”Oh look at her; she is gorgeous!” Until she said, “What’s her name?” I didn’t know where the voice was, or that it was talking to me. When I turned, I saw a twenty-something brunette stepping out from behind the bi-fold bus doors…

Greetings, urban neighbors. I live in Inman Park on a street between the famously funky Little Five Points and the CSX rail yard. The railyard's piggyback operations screech and clang along DeKalb Avenue — that confusing three-lane mass of congestion whose traffic swarms east and west, in rhythm to downtown office hours, like so many schools of fish darting to and fro in unison. I used to unfailingly wish, whenever I went out, that I lived someplace beautiful. The view from here can be pretty gritty. But I have discovered that there is some "pretty" in gritty. Urban beauty abounds, as shafts …