Quick Story Ideas
- Junkman Daughter’s Brother vs Junkman’s Daughter – Athens locale versus its Atlanta counterpoint, how the recent years of the Atlanta shop can predict the future of the Athens one?
- State of Downtown music festivals – end of Athfest / age of Slingshot?
- The competition for Athens tattoo cliental – downtown choices (Pain and Wonder, Walk the Line) vs around town shops (Midnight Iguana, Mothership, Labyrinth)
- The influx of trash downtown following UGA Football games
- Could Athens survive without football? Profit analyses of downtown business in the off-season
- Athens Food Trucks – Is that still happening? Holy Crepe – Saphir Grici
- The fight for late night food – 24 hour fast restaurants and is there enough/too many (DP Dough, Eddies Calzone, Zombie Donuts)
- Zombie Doughnuts vs. Ike & Jane – is it even a competition against this local favorite?
- Terrapin buy-out
- Best Pizza in Downtown Athens – is Lil Italy actually terrible?
- Price of Athens DJs – DJ Mahogany vs. them all
- Little Kings Shuffle Club – will they lower age restriction with new institution of Michael’s Law
- Can a bookshop survive downtown? – closing of Jackson St Books / survival of Avid
- How to get around Michael’s Law – Where can under 21s go to hear live music in Athens (Globe, venues, restaurants, etc)
- Too many boutiques? Are they all selling the same clothes?
- Tracking what is locally made in local shops
- Housing development – what is the average apartment listing price now?
- Parking downtown – do we need another garage?
- Athens downtown homeless – is it better to beg or busk
- Nighttime street preachers – how effective/how wanted?
Expanded Story Ideas
- Trash and Litter After Game day – Exploring the aftereffects of UGA Football Games after the dust settles and trash is left all around. The population of Athens almost doubles on game days and that brings an ungodly amount of waste with it. UGA prepares as best they can, with as many trash/recycling cans as possible, but how does downtown fare? What clean up procedures have to be taken on the streets and how does it affect the city’s infrastructure in the long run.
- Athens Food Trucks – With the fad of food trucks now almost done and gone, is Athens feeling the same way? Local businessman Saphir Grici worked tirelessly to get legal permission to run his food truck, Holy Crepe, in Athens, but what ever happened to it? Has all hope disappeared as the food fad has or is he rebuilding his brand until he can launch it on the city?
- Terrapin Buy Out – Though there is much success and happiness with local brewery Terrapin having been bought out by a major brewing company, is all the celebration smart? Will MillerCoors allow the brewery to hold to their brand and recipes, or doing buying out mean “selling out”? Should we be wary for other local Athens breweries like Creature Comforts?
- The Battle for Athens Tattoo Empire – Tattooing is a fine art that is extremely expensive and highly regulated, yet Athens is home to at least three downtown tattoo shops as well as a host of other scattered across the inner loop. But which ones are in the best standing, business-wise and by word of mouth? Some shops, like Pain and Wonder, receive overwhelming praise from locals enough to also be a late night hangout, while those more scattered and looked down upon, like Midnight Iguana, face scrutiny from rumors of malpractice.
- Can a bookshop survive in Athens?- As historic Jackson Street Books closed this year, this would be a piece reflecting on if there’s a chance for any of the remaining stores, such as Avid or even Bizarro? Are the only sustainable bookshops in Athens those that sell textbooks or can book stores whether the storm? Is Jackson Streets closing an ending to a well loved business or the beginning of an age of electronic books?